Well, here is a Christmas gift for all you iPhone lovers out there. Remember the time when you wished that your iphone could support your bluetooth keyboard? Well, Santa granted your wish (kind of :P)

A new app is out which will enable you to use bluetooth keyboards with your iphone. And guess what jailbreakers? This app only works on a jailbroken iphone and your ipod touch too (Not yet tested with an iPhone2g)

The only limitation of the app is that the input method only works from inside the app. This means that you will have to copy paste the text in any other app, you cannot directly enter text in another app. But, no worries, its much faster than your standard iphone type speed.

Okay, enough of riff raff, here is how you proceed :-

1. Download the bluetooth keyboard driver available in Cydia *Click Me*
2. Start Keyboard Demo
3. Make your bluetooth keyboard discoverable (read your Keyboard Manual)
4. Select keyboard in device list
5. You will get a PIN code alert, enter this PIN in your keyboard.
6. TADA! You are now connected and you can enter text into the provided text field from your keyboard.

Thanks to ringwald for developing this awesome app.

Please share your experiences with this app through comments and let us know if you run into any trouble.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all readers out there.

iPhone supports some basic security mechanisms, including SSL; mail authentication methods and VPN’s, as well as WPA and WPA2 for WiFi access.

iPhone has a passcode lock feature. When enabled, you must enter a four-digit code every time you wake iPhone from standby. It also prevents transferring photos to your PC or Mac; you must disable the passcode lock to transfer photos.

We don’t know how robust the passcode lock is, though, and it is generally not good practice to store very sensitive information on mobile phones, PDA’s or laptops without encryption. We recommend not storing anything sensitive on your iPhone for now, passcode or not.

Another open question is whether iPhone can be reset by iTunes to bypass the passcode lock, yet remain activated for service by AT&T. If so, this would enable anyone to crack an iPhone and use it as a phone and Internet device, though perhaps without retrieving your personal information.

iPhone supports L2TP and PPTP VPN’s (virtual private networks), but we didn’t have a VPN set up for testing, so we don’t know how well this works.

DOWNLOAD GOOGLE EARTH FOR YOUR iPHONE

Here’s how the app works. You can type in a location after tapping the search icon in the upper left corner of the screen; tap the location button in the lower left corner, and Google Earth will find your current locale anywhere on the planet, highlighting it with a bright blue dot. The standard touchscreen gestures work in Google Earth—double-tapping lets you zoom in as does a two-finger reverse pinch, while pinching the screen lets you zoom out. Drag your finger in any direction, and Google Earth will follow.

Google Earth orients itself based on how you’re holding your mobile device; turn the phone sideways for a horizontal view of the map. The app also takes advantage of the accelerometer by tilting the screen as you tilt your iPhone or iPod touch. It’s certainly a cool way of getting something other than a top-down view of an area, but I found that even a slight twitch of my hands would cause the map to tilt unexpectedly and keep tilting as I over-corrected my grip. I wound up turning the autotilt feature off by tapping the settings button in the lower right corner of the screen.

Once you’re fixed on a location, you can search the surrounding area for businesses or points of interest. Tap on the search icon again, and type out a search query—“restaurants,” say. A series of labeled circles will pop up on the screen showing you all the restaurants in your immediate vicinity. Tap on one of those circles, and you’ll get an address, a URL, reviews from assorted Web sites (if applicable), and, in many cases, a phone number. While tapping the phone number did give me the option of initiating a call, tapping any of the Web page links on the page didn’t seem to do anything. Tapping an Open in Safari button launched Maps, of all things.

Unlike the desktop version, the iPhone’s Google Earth doesn’t include driving directions. You can get them, but you’ll have to drill down to that Google search results page to launch the Maps app. That will take you out of Google Earth, which seems like a lot of effort to go through for a feature that probably should have been included in the mobile effort.

Typing search terms in Google Earth has its pluses and minuses. The app is tied into your contacts, so if you start typing a name, the contact will appear as it does in Google Mobile App, saving you from having to tap out the entire name. Unlike Google Mobile App, Google Earth does not bring up suggested or common search terms as you type. If you want to look up nearby restaurants, you’re going to have to pound out each blessed letter—at least for the first time you search. Google Earth does remember previous searches, however, so if you’ve searched for restaurants or ATMs or other generic businesses in the past, they’ll appear as you start to retype them. There’s a caveat, though—you have to tap the existing search term twice to actually perform a search. Tapping once merely highlights the term, and if you then hit the Search button, Google Earth will look up your partially typed search term instead. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve searched for “rest” or “r” when I thought I was looking up nearby restaurants, but it doesn’t get any less annoying when it happens.

While Google Earth on the iPhone remembers previous searches, it doesn’t allow you to add placemarks or pinpoints in the same way that you can store favorite places on the desktop app. This is a very significant omission that diminishes the usability of the mobile version.

Another difference between the desktop and mobile iterations of Google Earth is the limited number of layers available for the latter. On the desktop version, you can choose to show street names, places of interest, traffic, or other layers created by the vibrant Google Earth community. It’s one of the things that makes the desktop version so appealing.

The iPhone version of Google Earth lets you turn Borders and Labels and Terrain layers on and off. Its only other layers are limited to Wikipedia entries and geo-located photos from Panoramio. Tapping on either a Wikipedia entry’s W icon or the blue box designating a Panoramio photo opens either of those screens within Google Earth. But there’s no way to tell what’s on the other end of that icon or whether it’s worth your time until you tap on it—you’re forced to hunt and peck. Also, in popular locales like the Vegas strip or Disneyland, photo and Wikipedia icons can be layered on top of one another; even zooming in for a closer look doesn’t always provide enough separation for those of us with meaty fingertips so some icons wind up being untappable.

I realize that shrinking Google Earth down to size for a mobile device requires some sacrifices. I surely don’t expect to be able to install a KML file that allows me to superimpose defunct National League baseball parks on a map, as I can with the desktop version. But some layers are more than just eye candy—street names, for example. As you’re scrolling and tilting and zooming your way through a Google Earth map on your iPhone, it’s easy to lose your orientation without a street name layer to guide you.

With its location and search capabilities, Google Earth could be a valuable tool if you find yourself in a strange city and need to track down an eatery, ATM, or tourist attraction in your immediate area. Still, while Google Earth offers an undeniable Gee Whiz factor, Maps seems like an infinitely more usable tool. It gives you street names, driving directions, traffic conditions in some cases, and even street views if you happen to be using an iPhone. The views in Google Earth are certainly eye-catching, but they can’t match what Maps offers in terms of practical value.

I suppose it comes down to what you expect Google Earth to be. On the desktop, the answer is “whatever you want,” thanks to the variety of layers, the multiple search options, and the ability to customize the app any way you see fit. The iPhone version is decidedly more limited. Users who merely want to zoom around the globe from the comfort of their mobile device will find plenty to like here, and certainly, there’s a value to that. But does that make for an indispensible? Not from my vantage point.

In a new weekly feature, I will be highlighting a handful of apps that I discovered during the week. These apps will be a mix of helpful, novelty, entertaining or just simple time wasters. I do plan on making an effort to keep them as low priced apps, but am really not going to set any real rule in regards to that. Basically, this feature will be a few apps that are designed to help you get through your weekend. Moving forward you can expect to see “Apps to waste your weekend” every Saturday morning.

So without further adieu, here is Apps to waste your weekend #01

This week I am going to highlight ShakeItPhoto, RedLaser, Yowza!!, Suicide Girls Flip and LED Football.

ShakeItPhoto: (App Store link) This first app is not free, but it is low-priced coming in at just $0.99. Anyway, this one is simple, it is a photo app that mimics an instant photo camera. You can even shake, (hence the name) to “develop” the photo. Anyway, aside from having a Polaroid like appearance, the images taken with this app have a slightly different look as compared to the standard iPhone image and in my opinion are nice looking.

RedLaser: (App Store link) Next up is RedLaser, and while I hate to include two paid apps in the beginning, this one will set you back $1.99. Of course, it is designed to help you save money, so that sort of makes it better. Anyway, the RedLaser app will allow you to scan a barcode and search for online pricing of that particular product. Additionally, you can also email the returned pricing list to yourself, a friend or a loved one. Talk about giving a hint as to what gift you may be hoping to receive. Personally, I usually favor instant gratification when shopping as opposed to saving a buck or two, but in reality saving money is generally a good thing. If nothing else, this app is just fun to play with, mostly because I now have another form of entertainment when out shopping with my wife. Unfortunately, this one is limited in that it returns pricing for only those in the US and UK…sorry about that.

Suicide Girls Flip: (App Store link) This is one that I hesitated to include, mostly because it is a little on the adult side, but that said it reminded me of a item that I had when I was younger and thought was the coolest thing (at the time). Anyway, this app is based on those old novelty style flip pens that showed a pretty (and fully clothed) lady. Of course, if you remember those pens, you will also remember what happened when they were turned over — the clothes went away. While this app is a little adult in nature, it does not show any nudity. The flip removes the regular clothes but leaves the undergarments in place. Still a fun app to see, if nothing else it gives a modern twist on a nostalgic pen. Coincidentally, the Suicide Girls app also received an update this morning (along with Tap Tap Revenge 2) that added an additional 7 models to the app, bringing the total up to 10. And yes, this one is available for free.

LED Football: (App Store link) Here I offer you another classic item that has been redone in a more modern way. This one goes back to a time when video games were not quite as graphic intense. In this case, the “graphics” were nothing more than small red lines. The app I have is LED Football, which is now available as LED Football 2 and will set you back $0.99. Honestly, I just had to include this app because it brings back many memories of playing the actual Mattel game as a kid, and for only a buck I was surprised to see how much fun it still is. The app features the interface that was found on the original game and even has the easy and hard setting options, the 1 player or 2 player setting as well as a simulated “wear-down” which makes it that much more like the real deal.

Yowza!!: (App Store link) This last app is another that is available for free and it is another that can save you money. I hesitated to list this one for two reasons. The first being that I have already highlighted another potential money saving app and second because I have had less than stellar success due to the area that I live. That said I do think it is a great app. This is a coupon app and yes I enjoy saving money, mainly because it allows me to spend more on gadgets. Anyway, the Yowza!! app will either take your location based on the GPS in the iPhone 3G or the zip code that you enter manually. Once that is in, you will be given a list of coupons for stores, restaurants and more in your area. The nice part here is that these coupons can be found and used from your iPhone — in other words you will not forget to bring that coupon with you.

Well, this wraps up the first in the series. Next Saturday will bring another set of apps and more ways to waste your weekend. In the meantime, make sure you enjoy this one.

iPhone News is the largest single site on the internet that provides dedicated information on iPhones and its related news. We have compiled information from every part of the world which has used the iPhone- thus accumulating the best information regarding the same.

The latest iPhone news is the part that we boost on our knowledge resource and have applied the necessary amendments to collaborate with the readers and their information.

Steve Job with his futuristic thoughts and necessary applications helped develop the most intelligent device of the modern times. It was his course that led the technicians to develop ideas supplementing the touch-screen methodology. With the declaration of Mr. Job to apply Apple’s technology towards more advanced communication purposes.

For any such devise, the most important factor was the presence of a smooth and flexibly functioning touch screen. The agility of such a devise always rested on the satisfaction of the user and allowing easy navigational process.

Instead of entering the PC and the PDA world, despite references for the same- Apple incorporated the idea that investing resources into smart phones to make it more appealing would be the future of the human kind. With excessive use of cell phones and additional features of entertainment becoming important factor while purchasing these cell phones- the idea was to push in a devise that introduced all these ideas on the same platform.

With excellent resources the process had started to synchronize all the functions on a compatible platform; following the functions with PDA, iPod and iTunes softwares released in the year 2001. With the release of the first cell phone with iTunes in the year 2005, Apple showed its regret with the incorporation of facilities lend to the cellular company. This made Steve Job to work vigorously to work towards this device incorporating the availability of iTunes: additional to the fact that the cell phone could display videos, stream them online and show pictures.

The use of the Macworld conventions, Apple did surprise the media and the world bringing up the fact in Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference that the iPhone would support third-party applications using the Safari engine on the device. It was on June 29, when Apple released version 7.3 of iTunes to coincide with the release of the iPhone helping the users reach to a stand where everything seemed possible to be done through this gadget.

A new rumor, complete with screenshots, maintains that Apple is on the verge of allowing movie and TV show downloads directly from an iPhone or iPod touch.

According to the blogger reporting the purported find, a friend who downloaded the latest version of the iPhone app TwitterFon claims to have discovered three mobile ads from Apple that pointed to “iTunes Movies,” “iTunes Movie Rentals” and “iTunes TV.”

Rather than take the visitor to a website, however, tapping one of the ads is said to switch to the mobile iTunes client and shows what appears to be a work-in-progress video section of Apple’s mobile store. Viewers can browse genres and see featured items, but tapping the actual videos themselves produces a notice that the content is “not available.”

Promos for episodes and movies are missing.

The section was reportedly in a rough enough state when viewed that a navigation bar used to filter by music videos, movies and TV shows wasn’t there at one point in the day and appeared the next. It’s possible that Apple was building the portal in a live environment, the report suggests.

A video store would signal a loosening of the restrictions surrounding video downloads on the iPhone. Since adding the podcast section to the iTunes Store, Apple has allowed downloading video podcasts whenever one of its handheld devices is connected through Wi-Fi but has never permitted paid video downloads, in part because of the lengthy wait to download hundreds of megabytes of content.

It appears that wait may be over.

Are you looking for a site to download games for your Iphone? There are a lot of sites out there for iPhone Downloads. However, a lot of them have a lot of hidden fees, restricted access, or restricted downloads. So, what are the best sites to download games for Iphones?

Lets first talk real quick about what to look for in bad iphone download sites. The first and most simple issue is having a site that has complex software. You don’t want to have to read a manual just to download games to your Iphone. Just check and make sure the site promotes an easy to use program. Generally, the widely used popular sites (that we’ll get to in a minute) will have good software.

The second biggest thing to avoid in Iphone download sites is “per download fees,” or monthly fees. Obviously, this is no good because you are going to be paying way to much, or be unable to download what you want because of the fees. So, make sure not to use sites that have these fees.

So, what are the best Iphone download sites? The best site I have found for getting Iphone games and other downloads is through iPhone Nova. They don’t have either of the pitfalls I described. They also have 24 hour support, DVD to PC software, a huge selection, and tutorials to get started with. So, go here for your iPhone Games for Download

Now this seems pretty useful, if you ask me. The iPhone 3G FUEL is the latest offering from Case-Mate and offerings a way to carry your iPhone and boost your battery life at the same time. And that’s a deal that you can’t really beat.

The FUEL makes it so you can charge your iPhone no matter where you are. Even if you leave your charger at home, you’ll be okay to go because the device provides you with an extra 9-hours of talk time.

Additionally, you can add on 7 extra web browsing hours, 24-hours of music playback, 8-hours of video playback and up to 250-hours of standby time. You can sync your iPhone 3G with this device as well. You can get the iPhone 3G FUEL Rechargeable Battery Pack today for $79.99.