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Apple today began offering unlocked iPhone 4S units for sale on its online store in the United States. As noted on the store, unlocked iPhone 4S units will work only on supported GSM networks, such as AT&T in the U.S., and will also allow for use of a local micro-SIM card when travelling internationally. They will not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon or Sprint. Pricing for the unlocked handset starts at $649 for 16GB units, raising to $749 for 32GB models and $849 for 64GB units. All three are listed as shipping in 1-2 weeks.

Sprint will begin locking all iPhone 4S SIM cards at activation as of today, according to a new report. Citing an internal Sprint memo, Sprintfeed reports that the memo indicates that all iPhone 4S units will have the SIM locked beginning today. “The locking occurs during the activation process and is invisible to the customer,” the memo reads. “The process for unlocking a SIM is the same as enabling international GSM roaming. [Representatives] should direct the customer to Sprint Worldwide for authentication.” The memo goes on to state that customers can sign up for an international rate plan and use the phone in most countries around the world, and that the update will not impact any current iPhone 4S customers who activated their phones prior to today.

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. According to Apple’s release notes, the update contains bug fixes and improvements, including fixes for bugs affecting battery life, the addition of Multitasking Gestures to the original iPad, fixes for bugs with Documents in the Cloud, and improvements to voice recognition for Australian users using dictation. iOS 5.0.1 is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2, third-generation iPod touch, and fourth-generation iPod touch, and is available now via the update feature in iTunes or as an over-the-air update. To update your iOS device over-the-air, open Settings, tap on General, and tap on Software Update.

A developer of AirPlay-compatible speakers has confirmed that the iPhone 4S is having a unique problem streaming audio to accessories, and that both speaker makers and Apple are trying to resolve it. iLounge has confirmed that third-party AirPlay accessories can drop the iPhone 4S’s audio stream within three to five seconds of starting playback, seemingly knocking the accessory offline for a brief period of time—an issue that does not appear to affect Apple TVs in any way. Libratone writes on its troubleshooting site, “Users of the new Apple iPhone 4S may experience both short and prolonged AirPlay audio drop-outs from time to time, and this issue seems to be occurring on all AirPlay-enabled speakers (from Libratone and other vendors alike). We are working actively with Apple and other speaker manufacturers to resolve this issue[.]” The company goes on to note that it is currently unclear whether the issue lies within the firmware of the iPhone 4S or the speaker’s firmware.

While iLounge has noted in past testing and reviews that all of the AirPlay speakers we’ve tested appear to have issues with at least occasional drop-outs, the issue with the iPhone 4S is more serious, rapidly and consistently interrupting audio playback within seconds of starting a song. In recent days, another speaker developer told iLounge that early AirPlay speakers have experienced unusually high return rates because of various wireless issues users have experienced, including audio drop-outs. Apple has yet to publicly address the issues.

Atari has released Asteroids Gunner, a new universal iOS game inspired by the classic 1980’s arcade game. Asteroids Gunner is a dual-stick action shooter that challenges players to blast their way through deadly asteroid fields and alien ships earning fortune and fame, collecting treasures and upgrading their ship and skills. The game provides three different galaxies to explore and conquer with 150 waves of asteroids and alien ships to obliterate. Players can choose from one of three unique ships: the Miner, the Bomber or the Dart that can be further customized and upgraded over the course of the game by earning Crystals and purchasing Space Bucks to unlock new galaxies and powerful upgrades. An extensive achievement system allows players to earn rank promotions and gain upgrades along with Game Center and OpenFeint integration for tracking high scores and achievements. Asteroids Gunner is a universal app and is available from the App Store as a free download.

Omer Shoor has released Photogene², the sequel to his highly acclaimed photo editing application for the iOS platform. Released as an entirely new app rather than an update to the prior version, Photogene² has been entirely rebuilt with an interesting and fun new user interface optimized specifically for the iPhone while bringing over all of the advanced features introduced in the iPad version over the past several months. The new app features advanced photo editing capabilities such as cropping, straightening, colour adjustments with histogram and curves, sharpen and denoise filters and several retouching tools. A host of special effects are also available including centre focus, vignette, frames, reflection, text boxes and more and a large collection of presets allow users to easily choose a look and further adjust it from there.

Photogene² also includes the collage maker feature introduced on the iPad version, allowing users to choose from a variety of templates to combine several photos into a single artwork style image. An advanced metadata viewer is incorporated to display EXIF and IPTC metadata, including locations on an integrated map view and users can also edit IPTC metadata directly from within the app. Photos can be exported to a number of online services including Flickr, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and FTP or shared via e-mail; multiple photos can be exported at once and users can choose to resize photos during export or simply send them out in the original resolution. Additional collage templates and frames can be purchased from within the application, and more advanced users can take advantage of an optional “Pro” in-app upgrade to add features such as star ratings, watermarking on exported photos, FTP history, RGB curves, JPEG quality settings, advanced white-balance adjustments and custom masking overlays for localized effects.

Photogene² for iPhone is a new application rather than an upgrade to the prior version of Photogene, however the new version is available from the App Store at an introductory price of $1 until November 17th to allow existing users to upgrade. Users who have the original version of Photogene installed on their device will also be offered their choice of one in-app purchase expansion for free when first launching the new application.

Following up on a reader comment that the iPhone 4S had an “unusual-looking” black component next to its ambient light sensor, iFixit has discovered that the component is actually an infrared proximity sensor. According to the report, the IR sensor is active any time the screen is activated — a major change from past iPhones, which only activated the proximity sensor when a call was initiated. iFixit suggests that the increased activity of the proximity sensor on the iPhone 4S may be due to Siri’s “Raise to Speak” feature, which would require such a feature active to know when the user has raised the phone to their head to speak.

In responding to a developer bug report, Apple has reaffirmed that its Siri virtual assistant will remain exclusive to the iPhone 4S for now. Citing a person who submitted a bug report suggesting that Apple release a paid version of iOS for iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch users that would include Siri, Michael Steeber reports that Apple responded with a simple statement: “Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.” While Apple has given no indication of plans to add Siri to any of its other products, several members of the jailbreak community have been able to get the feature running on various older Apple products.

Apple has started to seed non-developer end-users with a pre-release version of iOS 5.0.1 for testing. According to 9to5Mac, the new software is being offered to a small number of customers who have complained about battery life issues in iOS 5. The invitation email apparently warns that their devices cannot be downgraded to iOS 5.0, but that they will be allowed to upgrade to the final version of iOS 5.0.1 once it’s released. The report goes on to state that Apple Stores have been given a memo regarding battery life issues, which instructs them not to replace any phones that don’t exhibit hardware issues during regular testing, and to inform customers that Apple is aware of battery life issues in iOS 5 and will release a software update to address those in “a few weeks.”

AT&T has released AT&T Call International, a new application that allows AT&T iPhone customers to place calls to and from international destinations at much lower rates than traditional mobile voice calls. AT&T customers can use the application to place calls from within the U.S. to international numbers or use the app over Wi-Fi while abroad to place calls back to the U.S. or to other countries. Call International provides rates as low as $0.02 per minute for calls to Canada and $0.04 per minute for calls to landlines in China, France, Germany and the U.K. Regular airtime rates and a “small amount of domestic data usage” also apply when placing a call from within the U.S. over the AT&T 3G network. AT&T Call International is available from the U.S. App Store as a free download. [via Engadget]

Programmer Conrad Kramer has discovered a hidden Panorama mode inside the Camera app of iOS 5. According to Kramer’s Twitter account, activating the feature is as easy as changing the key for “EnableFirebreak” from “NO” to “YES” inside the com.apple.mobileslideshow.plist file. Speaking with Gizmodo, Kramer said that the feature only works on the iPhone 4 and later devices, as it is dependent on an internal gyroscope. This file is only available for editing to those who have chosen to jailbreak their devices; however, it does serve as proof that the feature exists, and suggests that Apple may plan on activating it in a future update to iOS 5.

In a written response to questions posed by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt made a brief statement about the Siri feature of the iPhone 4S. PC Magazine reports that in his response, Schmidt backtracked on a prior statement that Apple was not a competitive threat in search, and called Siri a “significant development.” He added that “Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information.” A recent non-scientific study of 40 Siri users found that the feature greatly reduced the users’ dependence on Google search, with 27 users reporting that they haven’t done a single Google search since they got the iPhone 4S and 13 reporting an average of two searches; these users would have previously averaged over 10 Google searches during the same period. [via MDN | MarketWatch]

Speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call, U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillion revealed that the company had been offered the iPhone and turned Apple down. According to FierceWireless, U.S. Cellular was offered the opportunity to carry the iPhone, but said that Apple’s terms were “unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint.” She added that potential strain on the company’s network was not a factor in the decision, and that the carrier remains open to offering the iPhone in the future. U.S. Cellular owns and operates the sixth-largest wireless network in the U.S., and serve roughly 6.1 million customers spread across 26 states.

Apple has seeded iOS 5.0.1 beta 2 to its registered iOS developers, the second beta release of the point update this week. According to the release notes for the first beta version, iOS 5.0.1 “fixes bugs affecting battery life, adds multitasking gestures for original iPad, resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud, improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation,” and “contains security improvements,” and also “introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.” iOS 5.0.1 beta 2 is listed as build 9A404, and is available now as a download from the iOS Dev Center.

eBay Mobile has released a new, redesigned version of its RedLaser barcode and QR code scanning and lookup application. Released as an entirely new application, RedLaser includes all of the features of the original app and adds a number of additional integrated sharing, organizing and purchasing features. The new RedLaser app now allows users to organize their scans into lists that can be shared with friends and family for creating shopping lists, gift wish lists or simply create personal lists to organize home inventory collections. Lists and items can be shared via Facebook or sent out via SMS or e-mail. The new app also features integrated in-app checkout from select stores allowing users to not only find the best prices but directly purchase found items for home delivery or local in-store pickup. Additional new features include an improved scan history with date stamps, expanded pricing information, improved product descriptions and reviews and options to view the actual barcodes for scanned items. RedLaser is available from the App Store as a free download and is a new, separate application from the prior version which continues to be available under the name RL Classic. RedLaser requires iOS 4.0 or later and a camera-equipped iOS device.

Apple remained the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to the latest data from Nielsen. Based on the data, the iPhone accounted for 28 percent of all smartphones in the U.S., while phones based on Google’s Android OS collectively represent 43 percent of the smartphone market. RIM’s BlackBerry accounted for 18 percent, Windows Phone for seven percent, and all other operating systems for four percent. Overall, smartphones now represent 43 percent of the overall U.S. cellphone market, and a “vast majority” of those under the age of 44 now own smartphones, with 62 percent of mobile adults aged 25-34 report owning one of the devices.

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 to its registered iOS developers. According to the release notes, the new beta—listed as build 9A402—“fixes bugs affecting battery life, adds multitasking gestures for original iPad, resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud, improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation,” and “contains security improvements.” Notably, the update also “introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations,” seemingly addressing an issue recently brought to light by Instapaper developer Marco Arment. An Apple spokesperson confirmed that some iOS 5 users were experiencing battery life issues early today, telling The Loop, “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices[.] We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.” iOS 5.0.1 beta for the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch is available now as a download from the iOS Dev Center.

Google has released an official Gmail application for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad providing a native Gmail experience on the iOS platform. Google has had an HTML 5 mobile web app for some time that provided an iOS enhanced experience via the Safari browser, however it suffered from the same limitations as other web applications in its inability to provide notifications and limited offline access. The new official Gmail application is designed to be fast and efficient and provides full native access to Gmail including notifications for new messages, support for threaded conversations, archiving, labelling, starring, deleting and reporting spam. The app also includes support for Gmail Priority Inbox, auto-completion of names from Google or iOS Contacts and Gmail search. Users can also send photos as attachments from directly within the app. The iPad version also provides a standard split-screen view and the application takes advantage of touch gestures such as pull down refresh and viewing labels by swiping right. Gmail is a universal app requiring iOS 4.0 or later and is available from the App Store as a free download.

Update: Google has removed the app from the App Store, indicating in its blog that “it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app.” The post goes onto indicate that the company is working to release an updated version soon which fixes the bug and that users who have already installed the app can continue to use it.

Square has released an update to its Square Card Case app for the iPhone and iPod touch allowing iOS 5 and iPhone 4/4S users to make credit card purchases wirelessly at participating retailers. Square Card Case is designed as a digital wallet for the iPhone allowing users to make payments and keep digital receipts from merchants using the Square payment system. The latest update adds support for iOS 5 geofencing features available on the iPhone 4 and 4S to allow users to automatically open a tab when they arrive within 100 meters of selected merchants allowing them to make purchases simply by going to the Square register and verifying their name. Merchants will then be able to confirm a customer’s identity with an image of their face in the Square iPad app and authorize payment using a credit card or debit card linked to the user’s Card Case app. Users can choose which retailers they want tabs to automatically be opened for, and tabs are automatically closed when the user leaves the 100 meter radius of a given store. Square Card Case is a free download from the App Store and remains compatible with iOS 4.1 or later although the geofencing features require iOS 5 and an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S.
[via 9to5Mac]

Regional carrier C Spire Wireless has announced that it will begin offering the iPhone 4S on Friday, November 11. According to the announcement, the carrier will offer Apple’s standard pricing on all models of the iPhone 4S as well as the iPhone 4, in conjunction with a new two-year contract and data plan. Interestingly, the company’s least expensive plans — the $50/mo. for 500 minutes and $70/mo. for unlimited minutes — both include “unlimited” data, which covers everything except streaming; the two more expensive offerings include true unlimited data. C Spire is now accepting pre-orders for both devices.