Recent Stories with tag iphone

AT&T's hold messaging is still trying to sell you its unlimited data plan--so you never get a surprise on your bill!--five days before its new, limited data plans go into effect on June 7, and bring with them overage charges. (I was calling to confirm that, in At&T's world, texting doesn't involve "data" and the answer is no, AT&T will still bill you separately for your texting plan.)

The upside of the announcement is that AT&T will finally be offering iPhone tethering when Apple ships its OS 4 this summer (though since OS 4 full functionality isn't supported on the 3G or original iPhone, it's not spelled out that tethering will arrive for older models: note that Apple's tethering page is for the iPhone 3GS model).

If your iPhone can tether (AT&T's wording is the blanket "iPhone customers"), it will cost you $20 per month on top of your $25 per month DataPro plan, and you'll be able to use your iPhone's 3G wireless with your laptop or other compatible device.

As of June 7, existing iPhone owners will have the option to do nothing (retain their $30/mo. "unlimited" data plan), buy a DataPlus plan (200MB per month at $15/mo.), or buy a DataPro plan (2GB per month at $25/mo.). AT&T's announcement details the overage charges are $15 for an extra 200MB for DataPlus customers, and $10 for each extra 1GB for DataPro customers. Again, tethering is only available with the DataPro plan--you won't be able to keep the unlimited plan and tether.

AT&T will send you texts, by the way, as you use up your bandwidth (a text is triggered at 65, 90, and 100 percent), so in theory you won't walk into an extra $15 or $10 fee blindly.

Now that we're a little more than 24 hours away from SIFF's opening night (looks like there's still some tix to The Extra Man available), it's time to really get to work on how you're going to festival.  Yes, "festival" as a verb.  Lucky for you, there's the free SIFF iPhone app, designed by POP, which makes it super-easy to plan your schedule, watch trailers, and even buy tickets from your phone. (It also works on the iPad and iPod Touch.)

Check out the SIFFter, also on the SIFF website, which allows you to sort through the fest's 400 films by genre, country, and venue, or just search the catalogue by title, director, or keyword.  I find the "now playing" feature helpful when I've got a couple hours to kill and happen to be near a theater.  And while I love the new glossy schedule SIFF has given out this year (so much better than one printed on newspaper), I'd much rather use the schedule in the app to access MySIFF, which syncs with the films you select or buy tickets for.

This is such a useful app that I've really only got one complaint, and it's related to the "social media integration."  I'd rather have to scroll less to get a full film description than have huge buttons to remind me to tweet about the film or invite my friends via Facebook (screenshot here). Now all that's left to do is work on getting your schedule for the next three weeks in order.  Sorry friends, but it will be impossible to do and see everything SIFF, though you can certainly try.

More exciting than Mariner baseball

Baseball is supposed to bring fathers and sons together, and it certainly did yesterday for the father and son sitting one row in front of me. It brought them together in a united effort to ignore the fiasco unfolding before them and instead play video games on their iPhones.

We weren't out of inning six before son, a pre-teen in a stylish windbreaker, busted out Cube Runner. Dad, who bore a passing resemblance to Phil on Modern Family, got next turn. By the eighth they'd moved on to what looked like Centipede.

I stupidly kept my eyes fixed on the field, where the Mariners put forth the lamest opening day offensive effort in team history. Two hits! Two! Yes, the Mariners had been two-hit before in a home opener, but that was by Pedro Martinez in his prime. A's starter Justin Duchscherer is a talented pitcher, but vintage Pedro he's not.

For sheer awfulness, the only home opener comparison is 1992, when the M's bullpen blew a five-run lead in a portentous 12-10 loss.

Starting pitcher in that game 18 years ago was Randy Johnson. The Big Unit who appeared a few hundred yards to the south yesterday at Safeco to throw out the first pitch. Johnson made his entrance from centerfield, walking toward the mound enveloped by a sustained standing ovation. His pitch, to longtime battery mate Dan Wilson, was an indisputable strike. Wilson and Johnson met and shook hands after the pitch; they were soon joined by fellow Mariner legends Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Ken Griffey Jr. for a '95 Mariners photo-op.... (more)

Just as the wheel in the sky keeps on turning, The SunBreak keeps on growing. We now have an official SunBreak iPhone app, thanks to the good work of Instivate and Purple Robots. What can you do with The SunBreak iPhone app? What can't you do!

Rather a lot, really. Let's just focus on what it does. You get to read all our stories--DELIGHTFUL! You can follow our Twitterings--ENTERTAINING! Browse our SunBreak Flickr pool--EYE-RAVISHING!

And under More..., we've added two special buttons! You can check in our weekly events picks post, On the List, and the weekend news wrap-up, cunningly named the Weekend Wrap. That's just for launch. We have plans to add more buttons as soon as we think up clever names for them.

I don't want you to think The SunBreak is an Apple-only enterprise, though. As always, anyone can follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our stories via RSS, or catch the feed on Facebook by becoming a fan. Or, if you're a skimmer, you can get a daily email digest of our headline stories.

What don't we do for you! Well, again, let's focus on what we will do. Which is keep writing about Seattle, the people who live here, and where you can get good pancakes.

Well, lookee here. Slightlynorth explores the amusingly creepy territory between Se7en and "Dick in a Box." Who knew you could get something so Lynchian out of an iPhone? Regardless, I was extremely glad to find it in our Flickr pool.

One of our Instivate network partners is Seattle Crime, the work of the indefatigable Jonah Spangenthal-Lee. Besides his reporting on crime around Seattle (Ex. A: "The Worst Jack in the Box in the Country"), another arresting feature the site offers is a Google map view of the city's 911 log.

This, not coincidentally, is what greets you when you open the new free Seattle Crime iPhone app. When you want to find out what the flashing lights down the street are about, this is the app for you. Version 1.1 lets you zoom in on your location, and also remembers where you were. Three tabs in total let you view the map, peruse the live 911 log feed, and skim crime headlines.

And yes, it looks like The SunBreak will be joining the iPhone app revolution soon enough. Now, in fact, is a good time for you to hit us up with features you'd like to see. We're kicking around events maps and listings, but if you have bright ideas, we, like President Obama, are listening.

This modernly old-timey train arrived right on time in The Sunbreak's Flickr pool. It's the subject of Shawn McClung's 27th entry in a year-long series of posting one picture per day, all shot, edited, and uploaded from an iPhone.

If you own an iPhone, you've run up against the downside of dominant market share. Local software company Adobe is responsible for Flash, which, besides being a terrific way to annoy site visitors as they wait for landing pages to load or as they scramble to turn down music that blares suddenly, has become the default way to display animation and video on the internet.

But Apple has so far refused to allow Flash to play in the iPhone's Safari browser. They have their reasons. Adobe has responded to the more technical variety, but perhaps sensing that Apple wouldn't be happy with anything less than iFlash, they have been hammering and sawing on Flash CS5. (They're foregoing a public beta, in fact, to roll out the software faster.)

CS5 contains a packager that "will automatically convert any Flash app into an iPhone app," reports the Washington Post. (A Hulu app, that's what that means! Or it should. Get on that, Hulu. Oh, good.)

But the delay has already given Adobe (and Microsoft's Silverlight, for that matter) a competitor they weren't looking for.

Yesterday YouTube announced it's supporting HTML5 video players, which (currently) work in Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer. Today it's Vimeo. ReadWriteWeb explains that, "An HTML5 video player will allow videos to be viewed without Adobe's Flashplayer plug-in, videos will load faster and developers will be able to build all kinds of other intriguing features into a media delivery scheme based on the next version of HTML."

You can sign up for an experimental HTML5 video player here.

I am not backing a particular horse here--my hope is simply to maximize the streaming video I can watch via iPhone, as a way of paying AT&T back for their unlimited data plan pricing. Flash, HTML5--I just want to play Lawrence of Arabia in high rotation until a data center buckles.

Times like these, you need a snow break. Item 31181, Ben Evans Recreation Program Collection (Record Series 5801-02), Seattle Municipal Archives.

Maurice Clemmons was shot to death by a Seattle patrol officer in the early morning hours of December 1, but the epilogue of the alleged Lakewood cop killer has at least three chapters of its own: the complicity of Clemmons' family and the arrest of his sister, the fate of his aunt's ransacked, tear-gassed home (news of a fundraiser for the damages appeared in CDNews comments), and Washington-Arksansas parole politics.

Yesterday, former UW exchange student Amanda Knox was found guilty on all counts of the charges against her in the murder of Meredith Kercher. The trial in Perugia has been called a "public lynching," which is true in at least one way: No matter her guilt or innocence, Amanda Knox's earlier life--the one with the soccer, Seattle Prep diploma, and study-abroad semester--has officially ended. Plenty of unanswered questions remain.

In the good news column: Amtrak Cascades is getting Wi-Fi in March of 2010, making those hours of unexpected delays a bit more endurable. Michael Cera came to town (now he's visiting Alcatraz, says Twitter, so you can stop trying to spot him). GM Tim Ruskell and the Seahawks parted ways (obviously not good news for Mr. Ruskell, but some of you were lifting beers in celebration), but Mike Holmgren says his schedule is free. You can now subscribe to Cliff Mass's weather blog on your iPhone. (Cliff, I wanna subscribe to Probcast! Gimme!)

Last but now least, he put a ring on it! Seattlepi.com's Mónica Guzmán and Jason Preston got engaged. That's Jason of EatSleepPublish. Twitter is so happy! (This concludes my Larry King impression.)

"Squirrel Mural" courtesy of The SunBreak Flickr pool member Great Beyond

The Greenwood arsonist may turn out to be...an arsonist. Seattle police have collared a 46-year-old homeless man with a long history of setting fires. The Seattle Times also reports that while there have been 17 arson-related fires in Greenwood in the past two months, there have been 68 in the past two years. Sleepy little Greenwood was wide awake--hundreds of residents and business owners packed an arson meeting earlier in the week, and a reward of $25,000 was offered.

Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn broke out the whiteboard and YouTube to update Seattle on his transition plans. One side effect may be ruffling Redmond feathers: McGinn is soliciting your input via Google Docs, famously uses an iPhone, and now his staff wants to use Macs, not PCs. Former Seattle-Times political reporter, current-Vulcan-PR-guy David Postman is advising McGinn on transition communications--Publicola commenters fear the worst.

Commercial real estate news continued to go down like a doubleshot of skunk-infused castor oil. The Mastro bankruptcy isn't going to be amicably settled. Calculated Risk calculated that 25 percent of Washington banks were "troubled," and Seattle Bubble noted that in terms of assets, not just institutions, 38 percent of the in-state lending market is held by "troubled" banks.... (more)

It's tech day on The SunBreak, I guess. I've been wanting to write about Locavore, the Seattle-grown iPhone app, for some time, and their recent update announcement just gave me a reason to. (Full disclosure: I have been at parties at the same time as Buster Benson.)

Locavore responds to the notion that eating locally grown food is not just better for your green self-esteem, it's better for local farmers, the environment, and food quality. Plenty of people value locally grown food over an organically grown label, although you often aren't called upon to make that choice around Seattle. (Of course, there are trade-offs.)

The $2.99 app identifies your location in the U.S. and then tells you what's in season where you live. (It also tells you what's coming into season, and what's going out.) It also gives you a list of local farmer's markets and farms, with a description of what the market is like, and tells you how to get there. If you're into the whole social media thing, you can also announce your local eating... (more)

Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

The Woodland Park Zoo's new iPhone app ( iTunes app store ) costs 99 cents to download, but the proceeds go to support the zoo and its animals, so who can say no? It acts as a guide for your visit to the zoo--you can see where you are and where you want to go via GPS, learn more about the exhibit you're standing in front of, and time your arrival to feedings and talks.

• GPS-enabled zoo map with “Near Me” recommendations for animal exhibits, play areas, concession stands and restrooms
• daily schedule of zoo activities including zookeeper talks and children’s programs
• educational animal fact sheets
• special promotional offers redeemable at concession stands
• “Friend Finder” to locate other iPhone users in your party on zoo grounds
• zoo news and happenings
• easy access to Facebook and Twitter so you can share your zoo experience

Some of the features (not GPS) are available just by visiting http://www.zoo.org with your smartphone. The site should now serve up a mobile experience automatically.

By coincidence, the same morning I sat down to discuss the success of private bus guides like One Bus Away with King County Metro's general manager Kevin Desmond, One Bus Away released its iPhone application.

The question I had was this--given Metro's well-documented budget woes, was there more than customer convenience to be gained from letting private software developers take on a larger role?

OBA is the brainchild of Brian Ferris, a grad student in Computer Science & Engineering at the UW. Ferris is studying human-computer interactions, so in a sense, Seattle's bus riders are living inside Ferris's experiment.

"What he's done is terrific," said Desmond, who is thin, monologue-prone, and data-driven. In fact, data is the next thing he brings up, pointing out that OBA runs on top of Metro data. "The issue for us with the private developer world is how can we better meet their needs. What standards should we use? We're planning a developer's workshop, probably in late October."

OBA's website and iPhone... (more)

The big news today for Seattle bus commuters and iPhone owners is that One Bus Away has gone public with its native iPhone application. It opens with a check of your location, and then automatically displays nearby bus stops, with real-time bus info. You can also bookmark your regular stops, view a route's stops, and sort by a stop's routes and departure times. Seattle Transit Blog gives it a beta tester's thumbs up.