Taking a holiday drive with the music blaring is a very American thing to do, but getting your iPod or iPhone to take part has often caused a world of confusion and crude jury-rigged solutions.

Apple has reported that 90% of all current cars are iPod/iPhone enabled, but I have never met anyone who bought one of those cars, so this short article will give you an overview of what's left for the rest of us.

There have been many ideas slung around on how to best integrate your car stereo with an iPod or iPhone. Some time ago we covered a 'complete solution to iPhone car integration. The solutions provided in the referenced iLounge article tells of many combinations of power adapters, FM transmitters, Bluetooth earpieces etc. But that's not the best way.

There is a much more elegant (if expensive) way of doing it, and I would like to scratch the surface on that topic.

On June 29, 2007, Apple and AT&T released the iPhone for $600 to crowded stores throughout the United States. A whole lot has changed in the iPhone-world in just 2 short years. The 1.0 software is just a distant memory, and looking back I'm a little surprised how limited the original iPhone was at release. I thought for the 2-year anniversary, we could take a little walk down memory lane and see how far things have come.

Apple announced the iPhone at Macworld in January 2007, explicitly stating they were doing it because otherwise the FCC would have outed them. Cingular/AT&T was named as the exclusive carrier. The phone would cost $600, which was a completely unsubsidized price.

Do you have Pre-envy due to the Touchstone and wireless charging capabilities? Well, good news then. A company called WildCharge has stepped in to give you similar charging capabilities with your original iPhone or iPod touch. The bundle is just shy of $80 and includes the charging pad and a gel skin that needs to be attached to your phone. Once installed, just lay your phone on the pad and get your charge on.

The skin unfortunately adds an unsightly hump at the base where the dock connector is, but that may be a small price to pay if you really need your iPhone charged sans wires.

The iPod touch version is available now with the iPhone version coming next month.

Testing how speedy the iPhone 3G S "S for speed" really is has become de rigueur. iLounge has put together two videos comparing the facility of the 3G S to the 3G, last year's iteration of the iPhone, and to the second generation iPod touch.

The operator tests four applications: Edge, Peggle, Real Racing, and Star Defense. They are all graphically heavy games with initial load times, and likely where the difference will be most exaggerated. As is to be expected from a phone named for its swiftness, the 3G S outstrips both the 3G and the iPod touch by a fair margin, though the iPod touch counters the 3G S a bit more easily than the 3G does.

The videos don't offer any quantitative analysis, nor are they exact by any stretch of the imagination (you'll just have to trust the device operator to touch the application icons simultaneously), but it's comforting to know you that if dropped at least two bills, it was for a reason. Because the videos don't offer any guidance as to which device is where, I'll clue you in: in both videos, the 3G S is on the right.

While I trashed Vodafone NZ's pricing in a previous post, in at least one way it's far ahead of U.S. telco giant AT&T: internet tethering using the iPhone is already possible over Vodafone's network without resorting to lengthy, kludgy, and unsupported hacks. Who knows how long tethering will stay supported here, or how long it will take before Vodafone remembers to charge extra for it, but for now, tethering is go in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tethering works over both USB and Bluetooth. Using USB to tether simply requires enabling internet tethering in the iPhone's settings, then plugging the iPhone into an available USB port on your computer. The Mac will automatically recognize the tethered iPhone, and your connection will be up and running.

Bluetooth tethering obviously requires enabling Bluetooth on both your iPhone and computer, and then selecting "Connect to Network" from the Bluetooth drop-down menu. Once again, the rest of the setup is automatic -- it really doesn't get much simpler than this.

The speed of the internet connection appears to be comparable to the iPhone's standard mobile speed using USB, but Bluetooth was only about half as fast. I didn't remain tethered for long for fear of gulping down my meager monthly data cap, but for the time I used it, tethering worked with no issues whatsoever.

For my money, having tethering available in little ol' New Zealand long before the U.S. will have it puts AT&T in an even less flattering light -- while AT&T has far more users spread over a much larger area than Vodafone NZ, AT&T also has more towers and more money to pour into their infrastructure.

Any other international iPhone users managed to get tethering working on their networks? Sound off in the comments, and be sure to let us know what network you're on.

Read on for a pictorial guide to enabling tethering over Bluetooth.

It's no secret that I didn't mind AT&T's pricing of their 3G S upgrades. However, 3G owners were upset that they were not offered the same discounts as new customers or those who had not fulfilled their two-year contracts.

Well, good news for those 3G owners who are wanting to upgrade to the 3G S. AT&T listened to your complaints and published an open letter and YouTube video explaining that current 3G customers may be given much better upgrade pricing when the 3G S launches. From the open letter:

"Beginning June 19, iPhone 3G customers [who are] eligible for an upgrade in July, August, or September will get our best upgrade price of $199 (16 GB) and $299 (32 GB)." This is definitely great news for some 3G owners, as it bumps up the date when they can upgrade for less -- however, if your discount date is past September 30, you will still have to wait to get the best pricing. Your upgrade-eligible date is based on both your contract age and your service plan; the more money you spend with AT&T every month, the sooner they will replace your phone.

There is also good news for those of you who have already pre-ordered the new iPhone: if the new eligibility window affects you, AT&T will issue you a credit for the difference.

Although I don't think that AT&T had to make this change in their policy, it's encouraging to know they're listening to their customers and making changes. Now that you're listening, AT&T, how about getting on the ball with MMS and tethering?

In the past year, my iPhone has become packed to the gills with apps. Some are for fun and some are for work. A prime example of the latter is Trip Cubby. My job (and Uncle Sam) requires me to keep close tabs on mileage. Trip Cubby makes recording my trips simple and fun, and version 2 improves upon a winner.

To get started, add a new trip and fill in your destination, purpose, any tags you'd like and so on. Designate a vehicle and its starting odometer reading. You can also categorize a trip (business, charity, etc.) and add relevant notes (tip: Add frequent trips to favorites for future reference).

From there, click done and you're off! Once you arrive, select your trip again, enter the final odometer reading and click Done. Trip Cubby assumes a mileage rate of $0.550, but you're free to change that if need be.

Here's where it gets good. You can sync all of your data online at App Cubby, should you lose anything. Also, you can mail all of your data to yourself from within the app as a CSV (a HUGE time saver at tax time). Typically I'm a pen-and-paper guy, but Trip Cubby has replaced the notebook in my glovebox.

Here's where it gets really good. Version 2 has introduced fantastic new features, including:

1. Predictive text input and data entry shortcuts. The main reason I use paper for text-heavy input is that I can write much faster than I can type. Predictive input helps a lot.
2. Charts. Oh, the charts. My favorite aspect of Gas Cubby is the beautiful and informative charts and graphs. It's so very helpful to see your data presented with a graph, and with a simple tilt of the iPhone you can view your Trip Cubby data depicted by category, paid vs. unpaid and miles driven per day, all across various amounts of time.
3. Bulk edit trips. Delete several trips or mark them paid all at once.

There's more to this update, but these are the highlights for me. Trip Cubby is an app that I use and rely upon every day. It's a free upgrade for registered users and can be purchased via the App Store for $9.99US.

Here's an interesting idea. The Mainichi Daily News is reporting that Japan's Aoyama Gakuin University has distributed 550 iPhone 3Gs to staff and students so that they can use the phone's GPS capabilities to monitor class attendance. In fact, the school will cover the basic charges so that the students aren't required to absorb the extra financial burden.

That seems like an awfully expensive way to accomplish what my sixth grade teacher, Sr. Dolores, did by shouting, "Caolo!" and waiting for my "Here!", but a major university has different needs (and budgets) than a tiny elementary school in Scranton.

We've seen similar large-scale iPhone adoption recently at University of Missouri's Journalism School and Abilene Christian University. Good luck to everyone involved.

[Via MacDailyNews]

ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple has instituted a new policy that will let iPhone owners swap their liquid-damaged iPhones for replacements. For $199US, customers can swap their defunct phones for a refurb unit, provided that it succumbed to an out-of-warranty encounter with liquid. Here's the catch: Said swap renews your 2-year contract with AT&T -- so it's pretty much like buying a new phone, except if you were to do that out of contract it would cost you $499 for a 16GB unit.*

Of course, this could also be another way to clear current iPhone inventory in preparation for a new model.

We couldn't determine if sweat-induced failures are covered by this program, but we'll let you know if we find out.

*Update: Apple has told us that a replacement under out-of-warranty service would not renew a customer's contract. We apologize for the error.

Once again, the folks at DigiTimes have leaked information about a forthcoming Apple product. Citing "Industry sources in Taiwan," they've published an alleged parts list for the next generation iPhone.

Standout items include the 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor from OmniVision, which seems in line with the rumored video features in iPhone OS 3.0. Also listed is NAND flash from Samsung and Toshiba and Mobile DDR DRAM from Samsung.

Most interesing is what missing from the list. Namely, the processor. So far, there are no solid rumors on what this could be, so it's really anyone's guess. We think it's safe to say, however, that Apple will release new iPhones this summer. Those who purchased original phones two years ago will have their contracts expire in June, just around the time that iPhone OS 3.0 and WWDC will drop. Here's to this summer!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[via theAppleBlog]

Last night while watching House, I saw what seemed to be a new iPhone commercial featuring some pretty interesting applications. Despite the fact that I was watching this particular episode on my DVR, I stopped fast-forwarding through the commercials so I could catch the latest Apple showcase of iPhone applications.

For many people, if you've seen one commercial for a given product, then you've seen all the commercials you need to see. Not so with iPhone. As these commercials so ably show, the iPhone isn't just one product, it's thousands of products. Thanks to the App Store, the iPhone and iPod Touch have become a tour de force of gaming, productivity, networking, and so forth. The success has become so ubiquitous that I am even willing to watch a commercial to learn of new applications that could enhance my life.

The good news is that after stopping by MacDailyNews I discovered that there are a total of three new iPhone commercials available for your viewing pleasure; all without having to interrupt any commercial-skipping. MDN has the hot scoop replete with YouTube vids to fill your stomach with all sorts of unicorn teary goodness. You can also check out the new advertisements, "Itchy," "Office," and "Student," in extremely huge resolution over at Apple.com

Via MacDailyNews

If you're an aspiring iPhone developer looking to hone your skills or a seasoned veteran who is willing to accept there is more to learn, then has Stanford University got a deal for you. Stanford and Apple have teamed up to offer course materials from Stanford's undergraduate program for iPhone developers.

The materials, available through Stanford's iTunes U page, include videos and PDFs to be made available every Wednesday and Friday during the 10-week course. Please bear in mind that while Stanford's course will be taught by Apple engineers, it is no substitute for the many great courses offered by Professor Bohon at TUAW-U.

Update: As a couple of you have pointed out, Stanford is not actually an Ivy League school. For a complete list of Ivy League members please see this article.

[via Engadget]

Last week came the sneak peek at internal AT&T memos meant to coach employees on the sale of unsubsidized iPhones. Today, there's news that Apple has begun selling no-contract iPhones at their retail stores. You can grab an 8GB iPhone 3G for $599 or a 16GB model for $699, take it home and do what you will. Unlike restrictions set up by AT&T, Apple Store customers may purchase as many unsubsidized phones as they please.

With WWDC and the release of iPhone OS 3.0 both scheduled for June, it looks like Apple might be clearing house for something new. Perhaps the current model will drop in price and become the entry-level iPhone to make room for the rumored 2009 model.

In any case, go and pick up a contract-free iPhone directly from Apple, if that's your thing.

Since the initial launch of the iPhone in 2007, people have wanted some type of video recording or streaming application. Of course, the iPhone SDK agreement doesn't allow this type of integration with the iPhone, but some developers have already gone ahead with creating these applications, and releasing them to iPhone owners with jailbroken devices. One such company is Ustream, who released their broadcasting application for the iPhone just a few weeks ago.

With a jailbroken iPhone and the Ustream Broadcaster, you have the same options as if you were sitting in front of your computer logged into Ustream broadcasting. Once you enter your Ustream credentials, the application will automatically log you in each time you open it. Once it determines you have a sustainable Internet connection, you will get a split pane view: the upper pane will show your live video, while the lower pane will show the live chat. Across the bottom you have a broadcast button, which will set your video live online, a record button, and a mute button. There is also an "ask viewers yes/no" button; tapping this button will pop-up yes and no buttons on your viewers screen where you can poll them for a specific question.

You have a myriad of options in the Broadcaster preferences. You can choose the video quality by selecting either High (auto) or low quality. You can also choose whether or not to broadcast audio, auto record, or send location. At the bottom of the preferences section you have the ability to send a Twitter message letting viewers know when you go online.

In all, I found this application to be extremely useful for broadcasting to Ustream while mobile. The frame rate and quality is also high enough that your viewers won't be bored to tears waiting for the next frame -- I was actually surprised at how good the quality for the viewer was. I only had one major complaint with the application: when you are connected via the cell tower, the application doesn't automatically switch you to low quality for EDGE; instead you get a message saying that frames are being dropped and you might want to switch to low quality. Other than that, this app is stellar and well worth jailbreaking your phone if you must have it. You can find the download instructions for Ustream Broadcaster on the Ustream website.

There's a new rumor floating around which claims that the case of an upcoming 16GB 3G iPhone has been photographed. The shot, now posted at iPhone Observer with similar images at MacRumors, depicts a matte black iPhone with the model number "A1303." It's also been suggested that the case in question is metallic, not plastic like on current 3G models.

In the end, what do we have here? A photo of 1/3 of a single side of an iPhone (why not post the whole photo?), a unique model number (I'm pretty sure my 5-year-old could come up with one of those) and the word of a rumor-crazy Mac community.

Is this the case of a future iPhone? Could be. But we're not betting the farm on it.

[Via MacDailyNews]