The iPhone OS 3.1.3 update is now available via the iTunes store. This a firmware update does very little other than fix some small bugs experienced by users of the 3.1.2 firmware. You can update your phone to the latest firmware simply by connecting it to your computer and letting iTunes download and install it. Direct download links for the update are not yet available, but will be posted once they are. For those of you using jailbroken and/or unlocked phones, do NOT upgrade, as your phone will no longer be unlocked and may become temporarily bricked.

In case you missed this, MadTV predicted the now announced iPad way back in 2007.

In case you’ve fallen off the face of the Earth and haven’t seen this all over the place already, Apple today introduced their newest product: The iPad. This is indeed, as you may have suspected, the long rumored tablet that has been getting so much hype over the last several months and from the looks of it so far, the hype was justified. Starting at $499, it offers web browsing, email, photos, video, functions as an iPod with iTunes, is already compatible with 140,000 Apps for the iPod Touch and iPhone, introduces a brand-new type of eReader from Apple called iBooks, has integrated maps, and much much more.

There’s really no way that I can do it justice, so head on over to Apple’s website to find out more.

For those of you who are eagerly awaiting the Apple event tomorrow, here’s a roundup of what you might possibly be able to expect, if the plethora of rumors end up to be based in truth.

• What do I call it?
  There are plenty of names floating around for the rumored Tablet, but here are the likely possibilities: Apple Slate, iSlate, iPad, iTablet, MacTablet, or TabletMac. For some reason, MacSlate hasn’t been mentioned, although that seems to fit well with their laptop line.
• What will it do?
  If the hype is any indicator, this baby will be curing cancer and aids with a single use. In reality, however, it will likely have a multi-touch screen, offer high definition video for a better mobile movie and TV experience, be a fully-featured eReader, possibly allow iPhone/iPod Touch Apps, full web browsing, and likely much more. If the iPod Touch and MacBook were to mate, this would be their lovechild.
• How will it look?
  Rumor has it this tablet will be sporting a shiny new 10.1″ multi-touch screen, similar to that of the iPhone, but bigger. There have also been rumors of a smaller 7″ screened version, but that is about as likely as an iPhone Mini. Chances are, it will have the appearance of a large iPod Touch.
• When can I get my hands on one?
  Analyst Yair Reiner for Oppenheimer predicts that it will be ready to ship in late March or early April of this year, but other analysts have predicted as soon as February, although that seems less likely.
• How much will this set me back?
  Most guesstimates say the price will be somewhere around $1000, but different analysts have said as high as $1500 or even as low as $700. Thankfully, we don’t have much more to wait before we know.

That pretty much covers the important stuff, but by the end of the day tomorrow all will hopefully be clear.

Words With Friends
Category: Games
Last Updated: November 1st, 2009
Current Version: 3.0.4
Size: 2.7 MB
Price: Free ($2.99 For Ads-Free Version)

Words With Friends is quite possibly the most addicting and fun online game I have yet to play on the iPhone. Easily the hands-down best word game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Words is a must-have for any fan of word games. Although there is still room for improvement, as I will touch on later, this game takes the classic board game of Scrabble, of which I am also a huge fan, and mixes things up a bit to presumably avoid getting sued. Essentially, the rules are exactly the same as Scrabble, but the double and triple letter and word tiles are rearranged and some of the letters have different values. There is of course an offline mode allowing you to hand your phone back and forth and play with a friend, but where the application really shines is the online play. If you have friends with an iPhone you can send an invite to them through your contacts list (It searches your contacts’ emails to see if they have a matching email on record with a game account) or you can enter their Words username. If you don’t have friends who can play or are just looking for a challenge, you can also have the game automatically search for an opponent and assign you to someone random. Games can be played at a very quick pace or sometimes you only end up making a move every once in a while and the game can stretch over days. For those slower-paced games, it even uses push notifications to alert you when it’s your turn, if you so desire. Don’t worry, though, if an opponent takes too long to play they will automatically forfeit after several days of inactivity. If you’re as hooked as I am and get impatient waiting for an opponent to play, you can also play multiple games at once, up to 20 simultaneous games – a number which makes my brain hurt.

To be fair to an otherwise incredible game, I will be touching on the improvements that I briefly mentioned earlier. First and foremost would simply be an option to mute the game’s sounds without completely silencing your phone. Aside from that, any other improvements would simply make an already great game even better. For starters, some sort of statistic tracking would be fantastic. Even if it isn’t something along the lines of a global leaderboard, just seeing some local stats such as your own win/loss ratio, your best scoring word, and other similar stats would be fantastic. It would also be nice to have a published word list or for them to simply just use the TWL that is accepted by clubs and tournaments across the country. It would also be nice to see the potential score of your word as you are placing down the letters and maybe highlight the placed letters in red if they do not form a valid word. Last, but certainly not least, would be the ability to more easily rearrange your letters when it is your turn and allowing you to move them and test placement while you are waiting for the other player to make their move.

Aside from the improvements I just mentioned, some of which are hopefully already being worked on by the developers, this game is absolutely fantastic. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and are looking for a good time sink, install the Word With Friends. You will not be disappointed.

Note: I originally posted this over at Chai Life, but felt it deserved a place here as well.

Emoji Icons are a rather extensive set of icons (Emoji being the Japanese word for what we call emoticons or smilies) that are common in Japanese text messaging and web sites and are essentially have been standardized in Japan. They are available on the iPhone and are very fun to use, but it takes a bit of trickery to get them unlocked. Here’s a step-by-step on how to unlock them. Once unlocked, you can sent them in text messages, emails, or whatever else you can type on the phone and they will be viewable by anyone who has a phone or computer that supports them. Even other iPhone users, even if they haven’t done these unlocking steps themselves. So, without further ado, here’s how to unlock them:

1. Install the “Spell Number” app at the iTunes App Store. Don’t worry, it’s completely free.
2. Once installed, launch the app.
3. In the box, type this exactly: 91929394.59
4. As soon as you have that typed in, without doing anything else, press your ‘Home’ button.
5. From your home screen, go to Settings -> General -> Keyboards.
6. Choose International Keyboards, then scroll down to Japanese, click it, and turn on Emoji.
7. That’s it! You’re done! Thought it might be harder? Too bad. You can delete the app now, unless you feel you need it for other purposes. Whenever you’re typing, there will now be a little icon on the bottom left to switch back and forth between Emoji and English (or whatever other languages you use).

Here’s a small selection of the 461 emoji icons now available to you:

As with pretty much every tablet rumor to date, this is pure speculation, but Apple has apparently recently acquired the domain name iSlate.com which has fueled the tablet rumor frenzy machine in to overdrive with name speculation. This seems like a perfectly logical name choice for Apple, but if the tablet rumors are true we’ll know quite soon.

The following record was what the whois info for islate.com used to show, although it now points to a domain registrations and trademark protections company named MarkMonitor, which Apple has used in the past.

It’s been a long time coming and after months of slowly chipping away at the market share of actual units sold, the iPhone has, according to comScore statistics, surpassed Windows Mobile in the actual number of total users. This huge step for the iPhone is due to the usage of Windows Mobile devices holding ground over the last year but not really gaining any additional users, whereas the iPhone’s userbase has been continually growing.

Here’s the raw data, for those that like numbers:

IMDb
Category: Entertainment
Last Updated: December 8th, 2009
Current Version: 1.0.0
Size: 0.5 MB
Price: Free

IMDb likely makes just about anyone’s list of the absolute best websites on the Internet, but for an extremely long time there was a void for users of smart phones or other mobile devices. Not only were there no decent applications that could access it’s formidable database of everything related to TV and Movies, but there was no officially supported mobile website. That era, however, is now at an end.

With the release of an official IMDb app for the iPhone, you can now easily and quickly access virtually any information from your phone that you would be able to access from your computer. You can quickly and easily access movie show times at a theater near you, see what’s on TV, read about upcoming movies, see the latest box office results and there’s even a fun little page called “Born Today” which will tell you which people in their database share a birthday on whichever day it happens to be. The real gem of the app, however, is the search box at the top of the first screen that allows you to search IMDb. This is where most users will likely spend their time, looking up actors, directors, movies, shows, or any other information you could possibly want to know in regards to just about any movie or TV show ever created and everyone who worked on them. This is exactly what makes IMDb the Internet gem that it is. There is no way for me to count the number of times I have used IMDb while watching TV or a movie (not in the theater, of course) to read about the actors, see what else they’ve been in, or just learn some fun trivia about them. Having this app available makes that habit much easier to do. Anyone who has an iPhone and is a fan of movies should be installing this right now, if they haven’t already.

When addressing investors at a UBS conference in New York yesterday, AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, reiterated AT&T’s focus on improving its network, while simultaneously slamming their line of smartphones, specifically the iPhone 3GS, as being the cause of poorer quality service. This, as anyone familiar with AT&T will already know, is not new news. What was intriguing about what he said, however, is that they will inevitably be charging that high-bandwidth users more for what they use. Wait, what!? Isn’t the whole point of buying an “unlimited data” plan that you get unlimited usage? To be fair, according to de la Vega, 40 percent of AT&T’s network capacity is consumed by a mere 3 percent of smartphone users. Most of which can be attributed to activities such as streaming video and music by apps on the iPhone.

In hopes that someone high up at AT&T is reading this post, here’s a quick definition that you clearly don’t understand, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: un·lim·it·ed
Pronunciation: \-ˈli-mə-təd\
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted (unlimited access)
2 : boundless, infinite (unlimited possibilities)
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined (the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy — Sir Winston Churchill)

Admittedly, new media, streaming, and heavy smartphone usage is a huge drag on the network, but for AT&T to continue prospering in to the next decade the correct solution is not to charge the heavy users for what you already market as unlimited. Smartphones are not a fad and are not going to go away. They’re going to keep evolving and the demand for higher data rates is going to continue to grow, so stifling your users will only push them in to someone else’s arms.