News

Chinese news source Caixin reports that China Unicom will indeed offer the iPhone 4 for sale on September 16. This is Apple's second iPhone release in China in under a year. October of 2009 saw the launch of a special iPhone 3GS model that shipped without Wi-Fi functionality due to Chinese regulations. The iPhone 4 slated for China Unicom's network this fall is said to have Wi-Fi.

Grey market iPhones are popular in China, with millions of units in operation. China Unicom allows users with any iPhone that supports its network to purchase data plans. The lack of Wi-Fi and high prices may have kept iPhone 3GS sales lower than expected. iPhones imported from other countries can sell for half the price.

According to an email from Steve Jobs himself, the latest and greatest iOS firmware version 4.1 will be publicly released soon. Already in beta 3, many features and bug fixes have been revealed by developers and are on their way to iPhone users across the planet. Apple has some finishing touches to add to the firmware before release, which is expected in September.

In the meantime, here's a rundown of what's coming in the iOS 4.1 update. First of all, iPhone 3G users will be happy to hear that iOS 4.1 will improve performance on their devices. Many have complained about sluggish performance and other issues after installing iOS 4.0 on this model iPhone. Subsequent fixes iOS 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 have failed to address the issues.

Rumors have surfaced online that Apple and its partner AT&T Wireless have ceased to offer the iPhone 4 without a two-year service contract. Speculation on the issue has blamed the policy change on everything from an impending Verizon iPhone to AT&T greed. These reports would be informative except for one thing, the rumor is not true.

Both AT&T and Apple offer the iPhone 4 without a contract at no-commitment pricing. However, these deals are not available online. AT&T representatives have verified that the iPhone 4 can be purchased without a contract in person, from either an AT&T Wireless retail store or an Apple Store. To have an iPhone purchased online and shipped to your residence or place of business, a two-year contract is required.

According to Oprah Magazine, StumbleUpon is not only the most addictive website ever, it's also the "greatest thing ever invented." Well now you can have all this on your iPhone with the StumbleUpon app. The app will look familiar if you're one of StumbleUpon's almost 11 million members.

With an embedded browser, the StumbleUpon toolbar has thumbs up and thumbs down buttons along with a home button and random stumble option. In order to use the app you must have a registered account with StumbleUpon. What sets the iPhone app apart from the desktop version is a focus on mobile-web specific features and content.

Vimeo has expanded its embedded video offerings to include iOS optimized HTML5. The video sharing site first launched iPhone-compatible viewing earlier this year with a limited selection of content. Although selections have been greatly expanded with the Universal Player, there are still videos that require a Vimeo Plus account to view on a mobile device.

Vimeo is even offering a Javascript snippet to help automate the embed code updates for those who have posted content on their web sites. The Universal Player has been under development for some time, and Vimeo plans to add support for more players as needed.