AT&T Looks to Rein In iPhone Data Hogs

Customers can bundle it with MiFi wireless device

(NEWSER) - Verizon delivered a surprise today with the announcement that it would start carrying the iPad in its stores later this month, Electronista reports. An optional deal would bundle the iPad’s standard Wi-Fi model with a Novatel MiFi 2200, allowing users to share a 3G connection with other devices. The move firms up those still unconfirmed reports that Apple will begin offering iPhones on a Verizon plan, ending AT&T’s exclusive hold on the smartphone. More»

Apple also developing iPhone 5

(NEWSER) - Apple will have an iPhone available for the Verizon network by early 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new model will be similar to the iPhone 4, but employ the CDMA wireless technology used by Verizon. The move means iPhones will no longer be exclusive to AT&T's network. Apple is also developing a fifth generation of iPhone, which a source said will differ significantly from existing models, though no details were divulged. More»

Displays show too many reception bars, thanks to faulty formula

(NEWSER) - Don’t trust your iPhone 4 when it tells you you’re getting great reception. Apple says it has found the root of all those reports that the phone’s having reception problems: its formula for calculating how many bars you’re getting is off. The company plans to fix the issue in a free software update soon. Problem solved! More»

(NEWSER) - Apple and AT&T rejected the Google Voice app for the iPhone, driving TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to drop the mobile device entirely. Why are Apple and its carrier blocking an innovative program that has amazing call-forwarding features and transcribes voicemail into text? “Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing,” Arrington writes. “Moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe.” More»

(NEWSER) - Apple has rejected Google’s application to distribute its Voice application through the App Store, and that shows that Apple is dead-set against innovation, Adam Pash writes on Lifehacker. The official line is that Google Voice “duplicates features already on the iPhone—namely the Phone and Messages app,” but that’s malarkey. “The real problem,” Pash writes, “is that Google Voice, and all it offers, is actually much better than what AT&T offers.” More»