iPhone Atlas

Refurbished iPhone 3GS as low as $49

(Credit: AT&T)

AT&T is selling a refurbished iPhone 3GS for as low as $49 with free shipping and no activation fees when purchased with a $30 per month data service, 2 year contract, and new activation.

The phones are available in either 16GB ($49) or 32GB ($149) capacities and available at these prices while supplies last when ordered from AT&T's Web site.

AT&T will probably run out of these pretty quickly, since these prices are going to be hard to pass up for most people.

You can control the iPhone's music playback within the Gokivo GPS app.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

You have two main options when it comes to GPS apps for the iPhone: apps with offline maps and apps with online maps. Examples of apps with offline maps are the Navigon, the iGo My Way, TomTom, or the recently added Magellan RoadMate.

These apps are excellent for frequent users as they don't require a live data connection to work. All the maps are included with the app and downloaded to the phone. However, they tend to require gigabytes of storage space and take a long time to install. If you plan on going on a long road trip, they are good fits.

If you are a casual user, however, it's better to use an online GPS application. These applications are just a few megabytes in size and therefore take a few seconds to download to the phone via a 3G connection. This means you can immediately get one the moment you suddenly need turn-by-turn directions.

The first online GPS app for the iPhone is the AT&T Navigator, which works pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only available to AT&T customers and is rather expensive ($10 per month) for what it offers. The good news is, you now have other and more flexible choices.

Your mileage may vary, but you should be able to sell your iPhone 3G for the same price as a refurbished 3GS.

So it has come to this: My iPhone 3G is a year old and out of warranty. Its battery ain't what it used to be. And, heavens, does it seem slow sometimes.

Needless to say, I've been eyeballing a 3GS for some time, but I still don't qualify for a price break on an upgrade--not until April, 2010, according to AT&T.

So if I want to replace my 16GB 3G with a 32GB 3GS, it'll cost me $499. It'll be a warm January day in Michigan before I spend that kind of money on a phone.

Ah, but there's another option. I can get a refurbished 32GB 3GS for $349 (provided I sign on for another two years with AT&T, of course). That's a little more reasonable, and here's the kicker: Guess what a used iPhone 3G will fetch on eBay these days?

You guessed it: right around $350. (Sometimes even more.) That amazes me right down to my sneakers, but I guess people are willing to pay handsomely for an iPhone that's free and clear of AT&T and ready for jailbreaking.

So--and this is what I'm telling my wife--I'd be crazy not to do this. After all, I do write about the iPhone for a living. I should have the latest model, right? Right? Honey, put down the rolling pin!

I'm kidding--I do most of the baking in this house. But I'm not kidding when I say I can't see any downside to making this move. Even if my old crank-start 3G brought in only $300 on eBay, I consider $50 a perfectly reasonable upgrade expenditure.

Obviously your mileage may vary, like if you're moving from an original iPhone or looking at a 3GS with 16GB instead of 32GB. Heck, you might be able to come out ahead on the transaction.

Thoughts? Discuss.

Apple's iPhone 3GS introduced video recording, trimming, and sharing by adding a higher quality camera and iPhone OS 3.0. These new features introduced a simple way to edit videos, but they won't be replacing iMovie on the Mac--the phone's video-editing capabilities are far too simple, since all you can do is simple trimming and no special effects.

ReelDirector (iTunes link), a new app for the iPhone 3GS by Nexvio, attempts to fill out the iPhone's video editing toolbox by adding advanced video editing features. It sells for $7.99, works best with iPhone OS 3.1, and is the first app of its type that we've seen in the App Store.

ReelDirector demonstration video:

ReelDirector lets you arrange and merge recorded video clips into a scrollable timeline filmstrip. Available watermark text overlays--in four styles with up to 36 combinations--let you tell people what they're looking at while your video is playing.

Twenty-seven available transitions make switching between video segments a lot smoother than the simple abrupt trimming used by the iPhone's native software, and the app lets you add, change, or delete transitions as much as you please. The changes aren't applied to your video, which is stored as a project file, until it is created to include the transitions. This is accomplished by pressing the Create button inside of your project to generate a new version of the video. Even then, if you don't like the results, you can edit your project, make adjustments, then regenerate it--editing is nondestructive and you never harm the original video footage.

Once you've completed your video, you can share it via e-mail or save it to your iPhone Camera Roll and later sync it back to your computer.

According to Nexvio, the company is planning on adding frequently requested features in future updates. We look forward to seeing how this app evolves and recommend it for people heavily into iPhone video creation.

ReelDirector tutorial video:

Apple has started to release new iPhone 3GS handsets with an updated bootrom and we reported that it rendered those iPhones jailbreak proof. However, this isn't true, Eric McDonald, an iPhone Dev-Team member, said in a Wired interview released last week.

MacDonald said, "It's not going to be impossible to jailbreak even if the exploit we used is gone."

iBoot-359.3.2

(Credit: Mathieulh via iClarified)

The existing tools used for jailbreaking will work with the newly updated iPhone 3GS handsets. The only problem is that Apple has patched the "24kpwn" exploit used to jailbreak previous models. The result is that the 3GS can be jailbroken, but it will only boot after being turned off while tethered to a computer. What this means is that if you are away from your computer and your iPhone runs out of power, you will only be able to turn it back on by plugging it into your computer, not the included AC adapter. Worse still is that if your iPhone crashes and you need to reboot it, you had better have your computer handy. If you don't have one, your iPhone will become a handy paperweight until you do.

We suspect that these circumstances are the same for the current third-generation iPod Touch. However, the second-generation iPod Touch suffered the same fate and eventually the Dev-Team released a fix that lifted the tethering restrictions. We think that eventually a similar fix will be released for Apple's latest iPhone and iPod Touch.

The caveat of having to tether your iPhone 3GS (or iPod Touch) to turn it on or run the risk of it turning into a paperweight after a crash or reboot might not make jailbreaking the updated devices worthwhile for many people.

Apple's iPhone is still king of the smartphone hill.

(Credit: Apple)

J.D. Power and Associates on Thursday released the results of its 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study and the 2009 Wireless Business Smartphone Satisfaction Study. It may not surprise you to learn that Apple topped the list for satisfaction among consumers, but the iPhone is also the No. 1 pick among business users, too.

The factors determining satisfaction for business users (in order of importance) are ease of operation (29 percent); operating system (23 percent); physical design (21 percent); features (16 percent); and battery function (11 percent).

Apple scored 803 out of a possible 1,000 points among business users in the survey. Research in Motion's BlackBerry finished in second place in the business category, with a score of 724.

The factors and how they were weighted differed for the consumer and business surveys. Factors used to determine satisfaction for consumers were ease of operation (which accounted for 30 percent of the score), operating system (22 percent), features (21 percent), physical design (18 percent), and battery function (9 percent).

J.D. Power said Apple came in first with consumers, scoring 811 out of a possible 1,000. LG came in second with 776, and the BlackBerry took the third spot with 724.

While the company didn't give specific numbers, J.D. Power said the iPhone performed "particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features, and physical design."

Overall, consumer satisfaction with smartphones has gone up 23 points out of 1,000 from a year ago, while business users report an increase of 43 points during the same time.

Apple on Thursday released an update for the iPhone operating system, bringing the current version of the OS to 3.1.2.

According to notes accompanying the update, Apple fixed three bugs, which may not seem like a lot, but they are important. Among the changes is a fix for what Apple says is a "sporadic issue," where the iPhone would not wake up from sleep mode.

The update also resolves an issue that could interrupt the cell network until the phone is restarted. A bug that caused a crash during video streaming has been addressed in iPhone OS 3.1.2.

Apple said iPhone OS 3.1.2 is compatible with the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS. The update is available by plugging your iPhone into your computer and clicking on the update button in iTunes.

Once finished, your iPhone will restart and immediately alert you to a Carrier Settings update. This is a very small update that will be completed without needing to restart again.

The cat and mouse game continues between Apple and the Dev Team, a group of guys who are passionate about freeing Apple handheld devices from the company's short leash. The Dev Team has been jailbreaking new Apple firmware for years, and it just did so again--though this time around it seems Apple is still taking the decisive lead.

The team announced Friday the availability of PwnageTool 3.13, which allows for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 3GS running the latest firmware, version 3.1. Currently only a Mac version of the tool is available, but the Windows version will be out soon. (Keep in mind, however, that you download and use the PwnageTool at your own risk.)

A jailbroken iPhone can do a lot more than what Apple wants it to do.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

The tool creates a custom firmware from the version 3.1 firmware released by Apple. To install it, you put the phone into recovery mode (turn it off, then plug it in while holding down the Home button) and use iTunes to restore the phone with the custom firmware (hold down the Option key while clicking on the Restore button).

The custom firmware, apart from jailbreaking, will not upgrade the baseband--the chip that connects the phone to a service provider--and therefore still allows the phone to be unlocked.

But there's a catch here. The tool only works with the iPhone 3GS that has been jailbroken with the firmware version 3.0 or 3.0.1. This means if you buy a new iPhone 3GS that already has version 3.1 on it or you have updated to version 3.1 using iTunes, there's still no way to have your phone jailbroken. There's even a rumor that there might never be one, unless a new exploit is found.

If this is true, it seems Apple has finally been able to gain significant ground in stopping the practice it claims could pose a threat to national security. And for thousands, if not millions of iPhone 3GS users who rely on jailbreaking and unlocking to use their phones with the service of their choice, this is sad news.

The Gorillamobile securely attaches the iPhone to a cycle's driving bar.

(Credit: Joby)

Are you an avid cyclist who wants to use the iPhone as your GPS navigator? Joby has something for you.

The maker of the recently introduced Gorillatorch announced Thursday its newest iteration of something that can stay really well on something else: the Gorillamobile for the iPhone 3G(S).

This is basically a tripod docking station for the phone which, apart from keeping the phone on any surfaces, can help securely attach the phone to object of different shapes, such as the driving bar of a bicycle.

The key to making the tripod work the way Joby claims it does is the ball-and-socket construction that allows for fully articulated movement of the flexible, wrappable legs.

The accessory comes with four interchangeable quick-release adapters for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and other mobile devices. It also has a custom-engineered, slim-line iPhone case.

In addition to the flexible tripod and iPhone case, the Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS package also includes two removable 3M adhesive clips and a universal camera adapter. This means apart that from the iPhones, the accessory can also be used with other mobile devices, such as mobile game consoles or video players, when you need to keep your hands free for other things.

Though the Gorillamobile weighs just 4.5 ounces and is only 8 inches tall, it carries a rather hefty price tag of around $40. It's available for purchase now.