We have previously seen the iPhone 4 FaceTime feature used when flying in a plane. The next video shows FaceTime being used from a boat 1000 miles away from any land in the Pacific Ocean.

The video call was made to Santa Cruz and uses a satellite connection that is commonly found on those who sail across the sea. The results are quite amazing when looking at the quality of the video stream and hearing the voice quality.

The sound does drop out slightly a few times but that could be related to it being hands free and surrounding noises muting the sound a little. [Read more…]

As well as introducing a new version of iTunes last night, Apple [AAPL] also pushed out a new version of iBooks for the iPad and iPhone. The new version is iBooks 1.1.1 and brings several new features to the eBook reader.

The new features include the following…

* Double-tap an image within a book to view it in greater detail.
* Experience books that include audio and video.
* Enjoy substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs.
* Look-up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
* Addresses an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
* Includes many stability and performance improvements. [Read more…]

Some users (a small amount) have reported problems with the DROID X smartphone that launched recently. The problems revolve around the screen that in a few cases shows flickering and problems with dead pixels on the lower section of the screen. Videos below show the types of screen issues some users are facing.

It doesn’t look to be a widespread problem at the moment as only a few reports have come in of this behaviour.

Some users on forums have indicated that they already have had their DROID X replaced. If you are getting the problems described here then it would be wise to take it back for a return. You’d be kind of crazy not to as it makes the screen almost impossible to use. [Read more…]

You can now get Android 2.2 FroYo for your HTC Desire although it’s not officially launched just yet.

The new software has been uploaded and has been made available to those who want to go the less official route and use unofficial roms on their smartphone.

“unrevoked3 is a tool to flash a custom recovery image to your Android phone,” explains the site where you can get the all-powerful application. “A custom recovery image allows you to perform advanced tasks on the system partition, such as flashing custom ROMs and taking a full backup of your phone (a ‘nandroid backup).”

[Read more…]

The Motorola Milestone XT720 is now available to buy in the UK. Right now, it isn’t available at any carriers but has been made available unlocked at Clove with a price tag of £381.88.

The handset is also known as the MOTOROI and runs the Google Android operating system. The smartphone has a 3.7 inch WVGA screen that has capacitive touch. It has a HDMI out put port, 720p HD video recording, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. For connectivity it has HSPA and WiFi. The battery has a capacity of 1390mAh.

The smartphone is an alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S and if you prefer a similar phone but with a physical keyboard, we hear the Motorola DROID 2 (Milestone 2) will be launching in the next few weeks. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] confirmed they would be giving iPhone 4 users free cases to prevent signal drop caused by holding the phone in the bottom left corner.

A company has quickly stepped up to offer antenn-aid. The new band-aids are used to stick on the bottom corner of your iPhone 4 and cover the gap where “x-marks the spot”. [Read more…]

RIM [RIMM] and HTC have both responded somewhat in terms of what Steve Jobs said about the iPhone 4 antenna problems not being unique to the iPhone 4. Samsung is the next company to push out a statement by indicating that although their antenna is on the bottom left of the device, the antenna is sufficiently pushed inside the device to prevent a hand holding it to cause the signal to drop.

‘we have not received significant customer feedback on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia II. Based on years of experience of designing high quality phones, Samsung mobile phones employ an internal antenna design technology that optimizes reception quality for any type of hand-grip use.

[Read more…]

HTC DROID Incredible users should be starting to get an OTA (over the air) update that started rolling-out this weekend. The new update was first mentioned early in July and as expected, has arrived.

The OTA update for the Incredible brings 720p video recording to the Android smartphone. Several bug fixes are also included along with Skype, MyVerizon and update widgets. We also hear the DROID red eye boot animation is also included.

The update is rolling out in stages and started with a few users over the weekend and should be ramping up for the next few days till all handsets have the update. [Read more…]

AT&T has now launched the Samsung Captivate. The Captivate is a Samsung Galaxy S Class smartphone that runs a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU. One of the main features of the Captivate is the Super AMOLED 4 inch screen that is used. The contrast is just amazing when looking at the screen and is one of the best screens available on a smartphone.

On the back of the Captivate is a 5 megapixel camera that is capable of capturing HD video. The Swype keyboard is included as standard on the device allowing for fast text input on the virtual keyboard. [Read more…]

Symbian released some source code for Symbian^4 recently and in doing so, quietly made some screen shots available that show what new features or changes have been made.

The changes show that the new OS and UI has a new iPhone/Android style status bar at the top of the page that is almost permanent. When we say “almost” we assume that some apps can go full screen. Just below the status bar is another bar showing comments on what is going on as well as what looks like the ability to switch between apps and jump back to the home page. This section will hopefully slide out when needed rather than being a permanent fixture as it takes up valuable screen estate for small screen devices. [Read more…]

BGR along with others managed to get hold of a Samsung Protoype Windows Phone 7 device to test for a week. The hardware it’s self will never be launched although the preview is for the software that will be running on it, Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft [MSFT].

The preview covers hardware briefly although it doesn’t cover the specific Samsung handset used due to it never being launched. The requirements though were mentioned which includes a 1GHz CPU, 3.7 inch 4 point capacitive multi-touch display, 5 megapixel camera, 3 hardware buttons, dedicated graphics chip and memory built in with no removable storage allowed. Microsoft are being strict on the requirements to ensure that the Windows Phone 7 experience is good on any approved device that runs it. [Read more…]

RIM [RIMM] has responded to the iPhone 4 press conference that was held on Friday. The statement made was released by the co-CEO’s of the company who felt Apple [AAPL] had mislead customers by indicating the BlackBerry Bold 9700 had the same antenna problems that the iPhone 4 has.

The full statement is found below… [Read more…]