You can download the new WinPwn at this direct link, and pick up a torrent for QuicPwn Tool for Mac here.
[WinPwn and Dev Team - Thanks, Estevan and Jason]

The Price: Still not official, but T-Mobile says it will be less than $100 with contract when it drops in early September.

The Verdict: Solid, everyman 3G for the masses.

If you didn't know it going in, you might not even realize the TM506 was 3G-capable. There's no big "3G" connection icon like on the iPhone, and nary a mention in the phone's settings. And most surprisingly, the phone ships only with T-Mo and Sony Eric's shitty t-zones browser—which is only a few steps past WAP.

So the first thing anyone with this phone should do is grab Opera Mini—and after doing so, all of the Google apps for Maps and Gmail (the built-in email client is equally miserable). It's smart in many ways to downplay the phone's HSDPA capabilities, since T-Mobile's rollout is still in progress. But the lack of a solid browser built-in is puzzling.

And here's the kicker—at the moment, this thing is lightning fast. I tested it in several locations in NYC, one of T-Mobile's first 3G cities, and we're talking near Wi-Fi speeds on T-Mobile's 1700/2100 MHz HSDPA network. I got a crazy average of 5037kbps using DSL Reports' smartphone speed test, where the iPhone 3G, in the same location at the same time, managed an average of 545kbps. Now before you get too excited, keep in mind that T-Mobile's 3G network is practically empty at the moment—when more 3G subscribers start piling on, speeds will certainly come down to the 600-1000kbps range that T-Mobile says will be the norm. But for now, 3G T-Mobilers will be living the sweet life. Pages load almost instantly with Opera Mini—it's awesome. And when you tether to your laptop (which T-Mobile is fine with)—it's still blazing, which is a great bonus.

Rounding out the rest of the package is everything you'd expect on a mid-range Sony Ericsson piece—A-GPS, 2MP camera with video recording, Bluetooth 2.0, Memory Stick Micro slot, a barebones media player, and all the rest in a light but solid feeling flip form factor (but I could do without the green). In the end, it's not for smartphone people, or worth leaving another network for, but if you're already on T-Mobile and it's time for an upgrade, you could do a lot worse for your money.

And until the network starts to fill up, you'll be putting your iPhone-toting friends to shame.

UPDATE: To clarify some confusion in the comments, all previous phones with 3G support sold by T-Mobile (Nokia 6263, Samsung t639, Samsung t819, Nokia 3555) are UMTS only, which means they'll only get speeds of around 200-300kbps says the T-Mo folks. The TM506 is the first high-speed HSDPA phone for the new network, which should get between 600-1000kbps.

While the slick Sony ZX1 is only 9.9mm, it also has a box in the middle and has to be set up on a stand because of that. The Samsung Ultrathin All-In-One 1 doesn't, extending the circuitry across its back and tapering the glossy back cover toward the edges, in a very smooth curve. This is a design choice similar to the iPhone 3G and the MacBook Air (and before the anti-Apple fanboys protest, here's a little tale: four days ago I asked one of the chief designers at Philips about Apple's industrial design. "Do you think they are a big influence in consumer products?" I said. Smiling, he spent five minutes talking about the undeniable influence of the work of Ive and Co. in most of the stuff currently out there).

The Good: Amazing, beautiful design. It's as beautiful and simple on the front as it is on the back. In fact, so nice on the back that, even while it's perfect to be hung on the wall, I would like for it to be standing in the middle of a room. The picture quality doesn't go far behind. Crisp image quality and very smooth motion, with an even distribution of light.

The Bad: You will have to wait until next year to get one.

Bottom line: The race toward the slimmest TVs continues, and I think Samsung has the winner so far. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

The minor iPhone security issue, which surfaced this week, is fixed in a software update which will be released in September.

That jewel comes from an Apple spokeswoman, deciding to ignore what ourselves, Wired or the San Francisco Chronicle have classified as a massive security problem. Ms. PR rep: could you please send us your me.com and apple.com passwords so we can demonstrate how easily accessing your mail by clicking a button is not, and will never be, a "minor security issue"?

In the meantime, she points out to the user-driven fix, as if that would help the millions who have iPhones and don't read Gizmodo, Wired, SFC, Reuters, or any of the outlets around the web that echoed the news. Not good enough, I'm afraid. [Reuters]

AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month (a total of $60 per month for the BlackBerry+tethering plan).

It seems ludicrous that the same thing is not offered with the iPhone. I understand the desire to prevent tethering with the current data plan, but I am willing to pay more money to allow tethering! With such an advanced device, why can I not do so?

From "Steve" to our reader:

We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

We're not sure—that "Sent from my iPhone" kicker either makes this email completely legitimate or illegitimate, but it's not a bad little rumor to start your holiday weekend early.

So would you pay extra to tether your laptop to your iPhone? [Image via Lifehacker]

Essentially, the 2.0.2 updated the iPhone to ask for less power from AT&T's towers for UMTS voice and data transmission. Apparently iPhones were simply asking for too much power—more than the handsets actually required—and when many iPhone users were stacked on one base transceiver station tower, the tower simply ran out of power.

No/low tower power equals dropped calls and poor 3G connections.

It's sort of like splitting a chicken for dinner. If everyone grabs just one piece, it can feed a family. But if Dad goes back for seconds before Mom sits down to the table, someone is going hungry.

The problem will not fix itself until the firmware update is distributed to more handsets. So update your phones and bring me another piece of chicken. [DailyTech via CrunchGear]

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A quick search of recently completed auctions shows 8GB Peter Phones still fetching anything from $250 to a crazy-high $575. 16GB models are grabbing even more, seeing a range of the same $250 to $700+ (for new in-box, unlocked phones). Over at NextWorth (which will also take iPods), a 16GB with all the accessories and with "light wear" (as opposed to the "normal wear" which is the next highest option) will net you an even $300, just enough for a 16GB 3G. My 8GB, which is soundly in the "normal wear" category after a few drops and a broken headset, will only fetch me $180, which has me thinking eBay is the answer. NextWorth does not pay a premium for unlocked phones as many will on eBay, and if you read Giz, you should be able to unlock your phone and load it with whichever firmware seems most valuable before putting it up for auction, no sweat.

Anybody sold their iPhone EDGE on eBay recently? How's the market out there? Let me know. [NextWorth via Gadget Lab]

Technical profile:
WCDMA 850/1900 (HSDPA)
GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
4 x 2.2 x 0.7-inches (local depth up to 0.8-inches)
4.4 ounces
2.8-inch QVGA Display (240 x 320 pixels) with up to 16 million colors
Nokia BL-5F battery, 950 mAh

Media:
16 MB on-board memory
Expandable via microSD slot
MPEG-4/SP MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
Up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
(scaled max QVGA on device, SDT on TV-out)
Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30fps
Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in browser
MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA

Main Camera:
Carl Zeiss Tessar lens
Up to 5 megapixels (2592 x 1944) JPEG/EXIF
MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 380) at up to 30 fps
F.28 Aperture
5.2mm Focal length
Dual LED camera flash and video light

Operating Times:
Talk time Up to 160 mins (3G), 230 mins (GSM)
Standby time Up to 200 hrs (3G), 230 hrs (GSM)
Video playback Up to 5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback Up to 14 hours (offline mode)

Connectivity & Data Services:
WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g with UPnP support
Micro-USB connector, hi-speed USB 2.0
3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio,
enhanced data rates
GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

Nokia N79

• Personalise your device with 3 Xpress-on™ smart covers
included inbox, with automatically matching wallpaper
themes
• Automatically change from portrait to landscape with
orientation sensor
• Easily navigate using the NaviWheel™
• Geotagging of pictures captured, and view them on a map
• Organize photos by albums and tags, and
synchronize with PC
• Upload and share pictures and videos directly toOvi and the web
• Enjoy great audio through standard 3.5 mm jack
headphones, built-in 3D stereo speakers or Bluetooth
technology
• Digital music player with support for playlist editing,
equalizer and categorized access to your music collection
• Synchronize and manage music with Nokia Music client
• Integrated FM transmitter and FM receiver
• Search, browse and purchase songs online inNokia Music Store
• Built-in GPS with A-GPS support and integrated 3-month
navigation license
• Multimedia city guides and navigation services available
for purchase. Drive: voice guided car navigation,
or Walk: pedestrian guidance for walking routes
Connectivity & Data Services
• GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)
Full-screen video playback to view downloaded,
streamed or recorded video clips
• Access internet video feeds through Nokia Video Center
• Transfer videos from compatible PC,
using Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Games:
• N-Gage™ experience and one free game activation
voucher
• Try and buy from a broad catalog of innovative, made-for-
mobile titles that feature connectivity and stunning
graphics
• Titles developed by leading publishers

Technical Profile
System: WCDMA900/2100 (HSDPA), EGSM900,
GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)
User Interface: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
Dimensions: 110 x 49 x 15 mm (L x W x H)
Weight: 97 g
Display: 2.4 inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) with up to
16 million colors
Battery: Nokia Battery BL-6F, 1200 mAh

Media
Memory: Up to 50 MB internal user memory,
4GB in-box micro SD memory card
Video playback: MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP,
RealVideo 8/9/10, WMV
Up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA orientation sensor

Main Camera
Lens: Carl Zeiss Tessar™
Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938)
JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
Aperture: F2.8
Focal length: 5.2 mm
Flash: LED camera flash and video light• Enjoy great audio through standard 3.5 mm jack
headphones, built-in 3D stereo speakers or Bluetooth technology

Operating Times
Talk time: Up to 210 min (3G), 330 min (GSM)
Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 370 hrs (GSM)
Video playback: Up to 5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback: Up to 24 hours (offline mode) • Built-in GPS with A-GPS support and integrated 3-month
navigation license

Connectivity & Data Services
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support
• Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and
TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 and
enhanced data rates (EDR)
• GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS) • Access internet video feeds through Nokia Video Center

Nokia N85

• Watch high-quality video on the 2.6 inch OLED display
• Full-screen video playback to view downloaded, streamed
or recorded video clips
• Access internet video feeds through
Nokia Video Center
• Transfer videos from a compatible PC,
using Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• Enjoy great audio through standard 3.5 mm jack
headphones, built-in 3D stereo speakers or Bluetooth
technology
• Easily control playback with the dedicated media keys
• Integrated FM transmitter and FM receiver
• Search, browse and purchase songs online in Nokia Music
Store
• Assisted GPS (A-GPS) provides fast and accurate location
information
• Multimedia city guides and navigation services available
for purchase.
• Drive: voice guided car navigation, or Walk: pedestrian-
optimized turn-by-turn guidance. Integrated 3-month
navigation license inbox
• More than 15 million points of interest with Nokia Maps 2.0
• Geotagging of captured pictures, and online sharing
• Organize photos by albums and tags, and synchronize
with PC
• Upload and share pictures and videos directly to Share on
Ovi or 3rd party services directly to the web
• N-Gage™ experience.
• Try and buy from a broad catalog of innovative, made-for-
mobile titles that feature connectivity and stunning
graphics
• Titles developed by leading publishers
• At least 10 games preloaded and one free game activation
voucher

Technical Profile
System: WCDMA 2100/1900/900+GSM
850/900/1800/1900
WCDMA 2100/1900/850+GSM
850/900/1800/1900
User Interface: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
Multimedia Menu
Dimensions: 103 x 50 x 16 mm (L x W x H)
Weight: 128 g
Display: AM OLED 2.6 inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixels)
with up to 16 million colors
Battery: Nokia Battery BL-5K, 1200 mAh

Media
Memory: Up to 74 MB internal dynamic memory,
up to 78 MB internal NAND flash memory,
8 GB in-box micro SD memory card
Video playback: MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP,
RealVideo 8/9/10, WMV
30 fps, VGA resolution
Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA

Main Camera
Optics: Carl Zeiss Tessar™
Image capture: 5 Megapixels (2584 x 1938)
JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
Aperture: F2.8
Focal length: 5.45 mm
Flash: Dual LED camera flash and video lightMaps and Navigation:

Operating Times
Talk time: Up to 270 min (3G), 410 min (GSM)
Standby time: Up to 360 hrs (3G), 360 hrs (GSM)
Video call: Up to 160 min
Video playback: Up to 7 hours (QVGA, 15fps)
Music playback: Up to 30 hours (offline mode) Photos:

Connectivity & Data Services
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support
• Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and
TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
• Bluetooth Specification 2.0 and
Bluetooth stereo audio support
• GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

Nonetheless, Apple believes that it can sell 3.5 million phones in the country within two years. That seems like a lofty goal, but let's not forget that Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world. There could very well be enough wealthy citizens out there willing to drop nearly $1000 on a phone that has quickly become a must-have status symbol. [Washington Post]

Another game pad design (below) was received anonymously and looks like a patent application. It has an analog stick instead of a D pad, and places the Start/Select buttons over on the left. Both seem incredibly useful for games that require precise control—something the tilt sensor is not good for. The upside is that these control pads can serve as a slightly large protective case as well. I, for one, can't wait to actually play NES and SNES games the way they were supposed to be played. [Touch Arcade - Thanks Arn!]

AT&T was calling me to set up an interview with their CTO, but all I could hear was garbled noise on my AT&T iPhone. "I can't really hear you!" I shouted, as if volume would clear the channel. It's always been like this, in my home in San Francisco.

While the howls of iPhone 3G reception issues get louder and louder, I've always wondered if it was the network's fault, as some Swedish scientists and journalists have recently suggested. Maybe it's just new AT&T customers making the bulk of the noise. From my experience, the phone isn't blameless, but the network is a major part of the issue.

Continuing the call on an land line, I said I'd be glad to meet with John Donovan. To be perfectly honest, on a certain level, I didn't really want to ask questions. All I wanted to do was get the guy in front of me and berate him for his network's voice quality and reception, relatively slow 3G rollout and coverage. AT&T's been last in all those metrics for years (according to JD Powers) and they were still raking in the bucks as the nation's largest carrier. But after meeting him, I'm certain John Donovan has the intent the Old AT&T didn't. And a detailed plan on how to make "More Bars in More Places" less like a joke and more like a promise. In fact, Donovan surprised me when he said, "We want to be number one in all those metrics" — That's a lot of big talk when I can't even make a call from my own house right now. Here's the outline of the plan, which Donovan provided later — as well as some straight talk from an AT&T engineer on whether or not the plans will work.

•Cell site splitting. We’re deploying about 1,500 new cell sites this year. This enhances service quality in two ways – we’re expanding the geographic reach of the network, and in some places, we’re adding cell sites in existing territory to improve coverage and capacity.

•We monitor the usage for both data and voice on each and every cell site sector, combine that with our forecasts and customer feedback to target specific locations where we need to augment capacity via further cell splits.

•TDMA turndown. Earlier this year we turned down our TDMA/Analog networks. That allowed us to free up key spectrum to redeploy into the UMTS/HSPA network. Not only does that give us the opportunity to increase overall capacity on UMTS/HSPA, it enables us to deploy UMTS/HSPA at 850 Mhz (vs 1900 Mhz). This 850 spectrum provides optimum in-building coverage. We’re in the midst of turning up this spectrum on the UMTS-HSPA network across the country.

•Short measurement intervals. We’re deploying capabilities to measure network performance in much shorter intervals. This capability will be especially important to maximize service quality during major events. For example, during a Final Four or World Series game, traffic on the network will spike during time outs, or when a great play, bad call, or something else big happens. In normal circumstances, we might measure traffic and performance a few times per hour, but in these situations, we’ll monitor every few minutes to ensure maximum performance during the spikes that occur in real time.

•Wireless backhaul. We’re leveraging our U-verse and metro Ethernet fiber deployments to enhance wireless backhaul connections in many areas. We’re moving more and more of our wireless backhaul onto the 40 Gbps AT&T backbone network. So … the investments we’re making to maximize service quality on the wired side also benefit our wireless customers.

•Drive testing. AT&T technicians and other third-party vendors will drive-test its network nearly 30 million miles in the next year to improve the network’s coverage and quality.

•Hundreds of technicians from third-party testing companies, infrastructure vendors and AT&T technicians use specially designed vehicles to travel throughout the country and test the signal strength and coverage of AT&T’s ALLOVER Network.

•Along with drive-testing its own network, AT&T drive-tests competitors’ networks to ensure that its coverage and quality are equal to or better than other companies providing service in the area.

•The drive-test results help to prioritize where the company invests in new cell sites and equipment that enhances the network quality and coverage.

While a great deal of the document above is fairly obvious, there are many roadblocks to executing the plan and improving the network. Donovan's interview revealed some details of the plan above, but some engineers within the ranks gave me a great deal of insight, too.

A large part of the problem, Donovan said, is that people would complain, and yet, by all of their measurements, the user should have had full bars in the place and at the time they reported the poor coverage. Hence the need for better tools and more frequent sampling, instead of several times per hour, they'd do it every few minutes during congested periods. A great deal of that testing is done using network tools, but drive testing will help, and AT&T also tests their competitors' networks for comparison.

Adding more towers in a place is not simple. It's a local affair, requiring navigation of local building codes and politics. Somewhere like SF makes that hard, but the hilly terrain wouldn't help the situation either. And while 30 million miles of driving sounds like a good idea, the engineers I talked to insisted that drive testing is really just a final check once you've got enough towers in place. "Save the money on drive testing and build sites or improve sites we already have...[by] buying t-1s to increase capacity." He also commented that adding 1500 towers alone isn't enough to solve the problem.

Turning down analog networks sounds like a winning strategy, as long as you don't mind grandma's cell call quality being degraded. The activation of the 850MHz band will also enable better indoor reception, which is going to be critical in expanding data/voice quality as user counts go up. Donovan also said that they'd shift their allocation of bandwidth towards data from voice, which makes sense. Analog aside, the EDGE legacy is taking up resources on the towers which are shared with 3G. As one of the engineers said, having UMTS and GSM use the same antennas causes "interference and performance. It’s like putting a splitter on a garden hose the flow is still there but volume is cut in half on each side." (This is where Verizon and Sprint have an advantage.)

And as Wired has realized, 3G range being more limited, AT&T can't actually blanket a city by using the same tower locations as their EDGE counterparts. But my engineer friend also said, "We went from 2.5g experts to 3g novices." They don't have the training or experience to find or fix issues as well as they do on EDGE networks. Many in the field are also lacking the expensive test gear for UMTS to find bad channels and interference.

Why didn't AT&T make these investments in the first place, while Starbucks and T-Mobile worked on Wi-Fi hotspots and Sprint/Verizon went 3G ahead of the curve? Money.

And while AT&T's financially conservative strategies in the past have limited expansion, there's no reason they couldn't also do so in the future. I asked Donovan if caution was the overriding strategy behind waiting to match Sprint's initial 3G rollout, he replied, "I'd like to say we're deliberate. " He added that initially meeting the voice quality and data rates of Sprint's 3G network would have been both technically and financially impossible, despite the customer benefit. (One only needs to look at Sprint's financial weakness now to appreciate the wisdom of his point.) He also pointed out that by waiting, they got to leapfrog the limitations of Sprint's EVDO networks, referring to the extended data rates their network will eventually run at, at a better value. "The most astute thing you can do is be as late as possible and as fast as possible. Because it's going to cost you more if you do it too early, and if you do it too late, you don't get the features you want."

When AT&T's LTE networks do make the jump past Sprint, from 1.7Mbit to 7Mbit to 11Mbit to 20Mbit, their bottle neck will move to their backend infrastructure. To counteract that, they'll depend on their extensive wired and fiber backhauls the company has. But, in areas where the telco is owned by AT&T, AT&T wireless still has to buy lines from themselves and the budget isn’t there. According to at least one engineer, "We still operate at the field as two completely different companies. While at the top they see “ONE” we see many."

Will AT&T succeed at having the best call quality, coverage and reception? Who knows. But at least here, we have their plans on record and can hold them to the goal. After all, they're the biggest carrier — they've got a responsibility to all of us to make their network the best, no matter what the cost.

I just want to be able to hear the other person on the end of the line.

In major metro areas in the US, 3G performance is slow as balls—10 out of 30 in San Francisco reported speeds as slow as EDGE, pointing to overloaded towers in heavy usage areas. (And because AT&T's 3G equipment is mostly deployed on existing 2G towers which are spaced farther apart than 3G's range, when you get the to edge of a tower's coverage, you're going to get crappy performance.)

Another thing pointing to tower overload, anecdotally, is that the noise level of complaints has been blowing up since launch (re: 3G speeds, it was relatively quiet in complaint city), indicating that the rising tidal wave of 3G users hitting AT&T's network is outpacing their capacity. With Wired's data, there's a decent case that if your 3G is sucking, it's not entirely your phone's fault after all.

Still, the average speed US speed of 990Kbps isn't bad, actually, considering that 1.4Mbps is the rated max download speed. It's better than EDGE. You know, when it works. [Gadget Lab]

My fave "mythbusting" point has to be that the iPhone 3G "will be twice as fast only where AT&T has 3G coverage!" No shit... like, you can only run trains on train tracks? OK, so it's really a dig at AT&T's 3G coverage, but you get my point.

This has apparently been distributed within Verizon, and though there's the possibility that it's not quite legit, it certainly seems the real deal to me. What do you think, chaps? [Thanks, Harris!]

Rooms: Until this week, IRC fans had to jailbreak to get chatting, but Rooms developed this week brings the same Colloquy-based engine to the App Store. The interface could use a bit of pretty-ing in future releases, but all of your basic IRC client functions are there, now without jailbreak. $1

WiFinder: This app pings all of the Wi-Fi networks in range and tries to load a sample web page once connected—saving you the task of checking each network individually to see if you can get a working IP. It could use an interface to then connect to the network in question (currently you have to go back to Settings) but this is handy if you often find yourself squatting, especially in major cities where there are tons of networks in any given location. $3

DianHua Chinese Dictionary: Just about all of the dictionaries in the App Store, be they English or other languages, cost money. Hopefully this excellent Chinese character dictionary, which lets you search for words in English, Pinyin, and traditional or simplified characters, starts the trend of these things being free.

Newton's Cradle: It could use a touch of MotionX's realistic physics, but Newton's Cradle is a fun diversion—bringing the ol' swinging balls rig to your phone. Responds to touch and tilt alike for hypnotizing effects. Wouldn't be cool if it wasn't free, so thankfully, it is.

Photohunt: My favorite bar game (aside from, you know, the normal ones like pool and darts) come to the iPhone, in a version that doesn't look nearly erotic enough, sadly. $5

This Week's App Coverage on Giz:

• Copy and paste framework OpenClip surfaced using an ingenious backdoor trick to bring system-wide copy and paste to all apps without jailbreaking, but it looks like the 2.1 firmware will close the door on the exploit. Frown.
• iBlessing and ParveOMeter keep you Kosher, make your Grandma in Boca proud of you.
• Palringo, the best App Store IM client, gets push-to-talk functionality.
• Microsoft says any Xbox Live App has to be free, and soon you'll hopefully be able to add friends via your phone with the best Live app, 1337pwn.
• We saw a preview of the next version of the Facebook app, which goes a long way toward looking like real non-iPhone Facebook.
• Snapture adds multi-touch zoom, instant-delete, color filters and more much needed improvements to the iPhone's camera. It's Jailbreak-only at the moment
• iPhone Myst is coming. I can almost smell my old Packard Bell's CD-ROM drive chewing on those Quicktime movies!

From the novelty/ridiculous bin:

• Two bucks gives you Roshambo, taking the great game us normal people know as Rock Paper Scissors and turning it into two douches shaking their iPhones at each other.
• Tie-a-Tie, your guide to being a man, comes in both Lite ($1) and Deluxe ($2) versions. Sigh.
• Lolcats lets you haz that cheezborger on the go. Free

And this week's trend: Apps for Pilots

FAA Wait: Unlike a few of the other aviation apps this week, FAA Wait is actually very useful for non-pilots as well. It pings FAA's live database for air traffic control delays at airports around the country. Great for getting news of your 3-hour wait on the jetway straight from the source. $1

FltPlan Airport Guide: Comes loaded with the full official listing of our country's airports large and small, and all the relevant info you need like radio frequencies, approach information, and nearby alternates to plan your Cessna jaunt out to them. Free.

Gulfstream Tanker: And on the opposite end of the niche spectrum is this app for owners of Gulfstream GIV or GV jets—rappers and Fortune 500 execs only, basically—which calculates how much money you might save by loading up with fuel for your return trip before you depart, factoring in cruising speed, trip distance, and the price of fuel at your two stops. Hov, your app is finally here. $20

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see what you missed last week and check our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

I've always been a Windows user, which means I've always been subjected to the ridicule of holier-than-thou Apple fans. You know what I'm talking about: blue screen of death jokes, spelling Microsoft with a $ in place of the S, saying "it just works" with a smug, chubby-faced smirk. It's always been annoying, and it's always made me want to avoid using Apple products just so I wouldn't turn into one of those people. But then the iPhone came out, and I wanted it. But I being a Windows dude, I knew to wait a year for what I thought would be a more complete, less buggy version. It was Apple's opportunity to get me into the fold, to make me a member of the cult. And boy, did they blow it.

I really would love to know where Apple got this reputation of creating lily-white products that never need fixing, created by a company that cradles its customers in fluffy clouds of superior technology. According to my first experiences with an Apple OS, that's a whole lot of bullshit.

The iPhone 3G is infuriatingly buggy. It crashes. It doesn't get great speeds when it should, switching to EDGE in areas that have 3G coverage. Coming out of the subway, it takes minutes to find a signal again and stop claiming to get "No Service" in the middle of Manhattan, often requiring a restart. Requiring a restart to get service! What is this crap? And when I do have service, calls still drop and fail all the time. The keyboard lags so much that writing text messages is more annoying than using T9 texting on a number pad. The orientation switching when you rotate the phone is inconsistent at best. Backups take minutes, sometimes hours. Sometimes, the audio output dies and it needs to be restarted to listen to music through headphones. If you've got an iPhone 3G or have been reading news on Giz, none of this will come as a surprise to you. What's surprising to me is how they're reacting to to the problems.

I called Apple famed customer support to see if they had any solutions for these bugs. Their fix for my problem getting service when coming out of the subway? Turn Airplane Mode on and off. If there's a more ghetto fix for a problem than that, I'd like to hear it. Last time I checked the C train didn't have wings. As for when all of these bugs will be fixed, the guy on the phone said "Sooner or later it'll be working to its full potential." Oh, great. How helpful. When asked if I could revert to a previous firmware version, I was told to just wait for the next release. Great, thanks for nothing!

Overall, the customer service reps I talked to were friendly, but they've clearly been overwhelmed with calls about the iPhone (my average wait time was about nine minutes for the iPhone support number). They're overwhelmed because they're the only facet of Apple that's available to talk about just what's going on with the iPhone. Officially, Apple hasn't recognized any problems, only releasing two patches that say they offer "bug fixes" without going into any more detail. It's the standard Apple technique; giving no information whatsoever unless they feel like it suits them. And this arrogant company causes such heart palpitations in you fanboys?

If you try to go through the PR channels, you get the Apple standard "no comment." Supposedly, Steve Jobs himself emailed one single person and promised fixes next month. That doesn't count as an official statement. In fact, that's worse than nothing at all, because it just shows how little respect Jobs has for all of us. He has time to tell one jerkoff who files a bug report that fixes are coming in September but can't release a statement that says just that? Screw you, Steve.

When the Playstation 3 got some new firmware that bricked a number of consoles, Sony didn't keep mum on the subject. They rushed a new firmware out in a matter of days and kept in touch with reporters about what was going on. They even apologized: "We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and appreciate your understanding and continued support." Apple hasn't acknowledged the iPhone issues to the press, let alone saying sorry for them. Because saying sorry would mean admitting that they screwed up.

The problem is that Apple has this reality distortion field that they use, which is a brilliant handling of PR most of the time. They give out tiny amounts of information, and by being so stingy they make everyone beg and salivate for little scraps But in the end, Apple is just a company like every other company. They screw up, they release things before they're ready and they botch crisis control. The reality distortion field can't cover for things like that. Their shit still stinks.

Before I got my iPhone, I was actually considering buying an Apple laptop. Can you believe it? Me, the Windows guy on the Giz staff, thinking of switching. Eventually, when the time comes to buy a new computer, I probably won't want to jump to Vista, after all. Why not try a Mac?

Now, after this experience, there's no way I will. I don't trust the computers to "just work," and if problems arise I don't trust Apple to handle them in an open way with customers. In fact, I expect them to try to keep things from me, I expect to continue to feel disrespected by King Jobs and his merry minions. And I'm not alone on this one. What could have been an amazing opportunity to introduce thousands of people to the Apple OS experience has turned people off rather than getting them hooked.

As he notes, the Apple's iPhone Programming makes it clear that OpenClip's execution was making clever use of a loophole, rather than operating on totally safe ground:

"The sandbox is a set of fine-grained controls limiting access to files, preferences, network resources, hardware, and so on. In iPhone OS, an application and its data reside in a secure location that no other application can access."

Access being the key word there. In the most recent 2.1 beta, the sandbox has been reinforced with titanium so that apps are no longer allowed to access another application's data, driving a stake through the heart of OpenClip's implementation—it doesn't work in any of the 2.1 releases, to wit. Apparently the stronger sandbox was in play before OpenClip made its splashy launch, so it's not just Apple being mean (aside from the fact they haven't given us copy and paste in the first place). Either way, it'll be back to waiting for Apple to deliver, unless you go the jailbreak route.

If you're unacquainted with the iPhone's file structure, Gruber's post makes for good education anyway. [Daring Fireball]

That's just under the total number of RAZRs shipped through July of 2006 (the last time anyone cared)—a little less than 3 years into the phone's life. And it equals nearly a third of the 170 million or so iPods that have been sold as of third quarter 2008—another product that's had almost a decade-long head start. And this is a smartphone, with a long-term commitment to an expensive service plan. Pretty big numbers, even if it's still a drop in the bucket when you take worldwide cellphone sales into question (every individual phone is).

And if every iPhone manufactured links up Skynet style via the iTunes store, to melt their unsuspecting owners and form their own sovereign nation-state somewhere, they'd be the 29th-largest country in the world—sliding in comfortably between Ukraine and Colombia. I call president. [Business Week via Mac Rumors]

A few notes on testing and results: As with the earphone Battlemodo, my testing methods were not scientific but practical: The audio test was a sonically diverse playlist of reasonable bitrate MP3s, the isolation test was a ride on a San Francisco city bus followed by white noise on a home stereo, and the mic testing was done by, well, making a few calls.

Each headset gets its own conclusion, including a summary of the circumstances for which the set is best suited. One with fantastic sound might cut off the noises of traffic, making it useless for biking. Another might be great for running, but not pick up nuanced tones of your obsessively ripped lossless audio collection. Apple's own headset serves as a baseline—it doesn't have its own section, but it is referred to where appropriate. At the $70 mark and above, it tends to be outclassed. Because of the varying needs of headset users, there's no one Battlemodo champion, but some are definitely better than others. Here are the results:

Altec Lansing Earclip-S - $40
One of two earclip-style headsets we tested, these earphones don't offer much over the standard headset besides a secure fit. Music playback is as clear as on Apple's buds, but without any of the bass. They're not very attractive and feel cheap and flimsy. The sticky rubber sheathing can sort of grab your hair, if you're bushy around the ears, though it does help the clips stay put. There are two controllers, one on the mic and one down the wire for with volume and mic shutoff. The volume controller is sensitive and gets inadvertently adjusted pretty often, and the call/play button can be hard to find in a hurry. The mic added an annoying static sound to voices.
Conclusion: Recommend for exercise duty, where they would at least stay in place and sound OK. They're water resistant too, but at this price you may not be too paranoid about sweat murdering your headset anyway. They look, feel and sound as cheap as they are.

Shure Music Phone Adapter - $50
Shure's solution to the headset problem is to sell you the earphones and microphone separately. Pairing with the fantastic SE110s will make for a fantastic combo, but the combo will set you back almost $150 total. Good thing you can use this adapter with any earphones. Voice quality is high, even in situations with ambient noise, but extras are not; there is just one button and gator clip.
Conclusion: If you like your current earphones, keep them and buy the Shure. Ideally, your earphones will have a short cable, otherwise you'll have to clip the mic to your shirt and let the excess cable dangle.

Maximo iMetal iP-HS1 - $70
Music is richer and clearer than with Apple's headset, but not by much. These fit like traditional earbuds, and are on the large side in both look and diameter. They're solid, but could be perceived as a little garish on account of the chrome finish. The single, large low-hanging button works well and is the easiest of the lot to quickly press. The very capable mic is positioned and designed intelligently, and is the best we tested.
Conclusion: A solid replacement for lost or broken Apple headsets for people who have big, weird ear holes and don't care about isolation.

Maximo iMetal iP-HS2 Isolators - $70
These are the in-ear version of the iMetal. Sound is slighly bottom-heavy but the rest of the range is well-represented. The tips are comfortable, and provide surprisingly good isolation. Walking doesn't cause any annoying thumping from the cables, which is often a problem for similar in-ears. The single call/play button is identical to that on the other Maximo, as is the superb mic.
Conclusion: The best value and a recommended purchase, provided you want something that shuts you off from the outside world.

V-Moda Vibe Duo - $100
These in-ears are about as bassy as they are stylish. This results in a slightly muddy sound but they're good for casual listening. Isolation is fair, but you hear significant cable rustling when you walk with them. The tip choices are smart and comfortable for a wide range of ear holes. The single control button is on the mic, easy to find. The mic delivers clear, intelligible sound at a moderate volume.
Conclusion: Too expensive for what you get, but look great and are as tough as nails.

Sennheiser MM50-ip - $100
Sound is comparable to iMetal isolators in terms of balance and quality, but they handle high volumes and bassier songs a bit better. Senn gives us plenty of tip choices, most of which are cushy and easy on the ear holes, but with a low to fair amount of isolation. There is some degree of cable noise when walking, but it's not too intrusive. The mic has a flush call button that can be hard to feel, but luckily sits directly opposite an easy-to-fumble-for indention at the mic's grille. Mic quality is above average, but not very loud. Unequal cable length after the split drives some people nuts, but works fine.
Conclusion: If they were a few dollars cheaper they would be much, much more appealing. Without a significant performance advantage, they lose out to the cheaper Maximo iMetals.

AirDrives Interactive Headset - $100
Taking a totally different approach than just about anyone else, the AirDrives are earclips with drivers that sort of float above your ears. The logic is that they won't interfere with ambient noises and permit all-day listening without fear of ear damage. Achieving a proper fit (or hover, I guess) was difficult on my freakish baby ears, but once you bend them correctly they don't budge. The listening sensation is akin to being in a room with the stereo on, so it's easy to hear what is going on around you. Voices sound fine, but music is robbed of any low to lower-mid frequencies, which I expect would be a dealbreaker for many.
Conclusion: Good for work or exercise where awareness of your surroundings is key, but that's it. Sound is just too poor to recommend for music lovers.

Etymotics hf2 - $180
Excellent, balanced sound, featuring the same audio hardware as the hf5's that won their category in our earphone Battlemodo. These won't win over beat junkies, but are truly in a different class than anything else reviewed here in terms of sound quality—and price. Putting these guys in usually means getting a deep, full seal against your ear canals, which can be offputting to some people, but rewarding to others. Isolation is very strong, and cable rustling is minimal. The mic setup is a one-button affair, but that button is easy to find.
Conclusion: Only buy these if you're an audiophile who, for some reason, doesn't already have a pair of decent earphones. Otherwise, just grab the Shures.

We tried to cover the bases here, but this list of headsets is by no means comprehensive—if you want to add anything from your personal experience, please share it in the comments. Special thanks goes to Clay Hane for testing assistance.

He says that both were connected to the same Wi-Fi network, but the possibility didn't occur to him that he might have to manually configure the web browser to use the already established Wi-Fi connection, which is a poor design choice, if true. He also says he didn't disable cellular data to be absolutely sure, because turning that off apparently also turns off Wi-Fi.

In his later test of the two phones, iPhone's EDGE to Bold's 3G, the iPhone still comes out on top, "albeit by a reduced margin," which definitely points to some rendering slowness on the Bold's part. He's going to re-run the Wi-Fi tests to be absolutely sure they were performed correctly. Takeaway: The Bold does render pages more slowly than the iPhone, but it's not draggy enough to go get a snack while you're waiting or anything.

With both running on Wi-Fi and a cleared cache, in a test using Slashdot, the iPhone is actually able to open an entirely new page before the Bold finishes with the first one. The Bold renders everything correctly, it just takes a looooong time to do it. The Bold's got some fairly heavy duty hardware though, so an update from RIM could always give the browser a jolt. [Mobile Computer Mag via jkOntheRun]

You'll be able to search for people outside of your friends, make/approve/ignore friend requests, and search your inbox and sent folder, for starters. Notifications will also arrive in real time while the app is running. The version of iPhone for Facebook after this will deliver them to you even if the app isn't running using Apple's push notification service. Overall, it's pretty excellent, check it out. [Facebook]

While the idea of someone in Alabama using an iPhone might take a second or sixty to process, she actually lives in Birmingham, one of the state's few bastions of civilization, which AT&T has blanketed with solid 3G coverage (though congestion is always a possible issue). Given the huge amount of noise about the problems with the phone's 3G—and even Apple's tacit admission of the issue with the 2.0.2 update—she estimates in the suit that the class spans "perhaps tens of thousands" of people.

The actual basis of the suit is that Apple broke its warranty that it would "perform adequately" on 3G. She's asking for Apple to be forced to repair or replace all "defective iPhone 3G" units, plus damages, interest on "monetary relief" and attorney's fees. The suit hasn't actually been made class action yet, but if it does, then this could get interesting. If nothing else, we might learn from the suit where exactly the phone's problems lie, and that might be worth the ride, even if it takes a long time to get there. [Ars Technica]