Release - Apple Introduces New iPod touch
Posted by Chris Leckness on 09/10/08 in Press Releases
The Funnest iPod Ever—Perfect for Music, Movies & Games
SAN FRANCISCO—September 9, 2008—Apple® today introduced the second generation iPod® touch featuring an amazingly thin contoured metal design, a gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker for casual listening, a built-in accelerometer and other advanced sensors, and Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPod touch, now available for just $229 for the 8GB model, is perfect for playing music, movies and games, with millions of songs, thousands of Hollywood movies and hundreds of games available on the iTunes® Store.
Release - Apple Introduces New iPod nano
Posted by Chris Leckness on 09/10/08 in Press Releases
Fourth Generation iPod nano Features Apple’s New Genius Technology
SAN FRANCISCO—September 9, 2008—Apple® today introduced the new fourth generation iPod® nano, the thinnest iPod ever featuring a sleek new design with a curved aluminum and glass enclosure, in nine vibrant colors. The new iPod nano incorporates Apple’s breakthrough Genius technology which automatically creates playlists from songs in your music library that go great together, with just one click. The new iPod nano also features a refined user interface, a high resolution portrait display and a built-in accelerometer which automatically switches to Cover Flow® when rotated and automatically goes into Shuffle™ mode when lightly shaken. The new iPod nano gives users up to 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video playback and is available worldwide immediately in an 8GB model for just $149 and a 16GB model for just $199. Both models come in silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, (PRODUCT) RED and black.
Was it a case of over reaction ?
Possibly this follow-up might make some folks feel a little better about the concern that was raised by Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development and an iPhone Forensics manual:
“This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut them down.
“I discovered this doing a forensic examination of an iPhone 3G. It appears to be tucked away in a configuration file deep inside CoreLocation.”
Engadget Mobile seems to think you all can breathe a big sigh of relief. According to John Gruber (Daring Fireball), via “an informed source at Apple” — the “clbl” stands for “Core Location Blacklist” and stipulates specific pieces of software that don’t have access to in the Core Location.
Possibly this is a better interpretation …. one never knows, does one? Check out John Gruber’s piece here at Daring Fireball.
Nokia + Zune?? Hmmm….
So how cool would this be? I like Nokia products and I like my Zune … imagine combining the two. Hmmm, very interesting!
Nokia is currently working with the Zune team on integration of Zune Marketplace content according to a well placed source within Microsoft. The joint development is directed at content delivery rather than a hardware device according to the source. It has long been assumed by many tech followers that Zune content and software would find it’s way onto Windows Mobile devices, thereby offering competition to the unfortunately popular iPhone. The interesting thing about the Nokia Zune partnership is that Nokia does not support Windows Mobile. It appears Microsoft may be developing a two front war against the iPhone, namely Windows based smart phones and more abundant “non-smart” phones.
Check out the rest of the story here at zunescene.com
via PPCT
Are iPhone 3Gs developing cracks?
Cracks? It appears to be so based on a post from Engadget Mobile. There appears to be a series of hairline cracks that are appearing on Apple’s new iPhone 3G. Some think it may be just on the White model but it is more likely that it just shows better on that model, Black would hide it better. Although it does not have an affect on the usability of the device, it may well end up being a big issue for Apple.
Do you have an iPhone 3G? Are you seeing any of these tiny fractures?
There is some discussion here at MacRumors forum and here at Apple Discussions
Need Extra Power for that NEW iPhone?
Posted by Jack Cook on 07/28/08 in Accessories
So is battery life a concern for you with that new iPhone? Here is an inexpensive solution from mobile.brando.com.hk
Charge the power station by your USB cable. Plug the power station to your iPhone to charge your iPhone at any time and any where.
Features:
- Test button (for checking the power station’s current capacity
- Animated LED indicator
- Capacity: 1000mAh
- Input: 5V/500mA
- Output: 5V/400mA (max)
Colors:
- White
- Black
MobileMe … Ragged Edges
It looks like Walt Mossberg is not to happy with the MobileMe $100 a year service that would bring corporate-type synchronization of email, calendars and contacts to anyone. He said that unfortunately, after a week of intense testing of the service, he can’t recommend it in its current state.
MySpace Mobile Application for the iPhone
Getting a new iPhone? Here is something you can get from MySpace to move through your MySpace network. Social networking website MySpace announces a highly integrated new MySpace Mobile experience customized and available via the Apple App Store.
The free MySpace mobile application for the iPhone empowers users to seamlessly traverse their MySpace global network on-the-go and boasts key features including instant photo uploading from the iPhone to a MySpace profile. The new MySpace Mobile application is specially designed for the portable screen of the iPhone. This video gives you a demonstration of the Myspace Mobile application for the Apple iPhone.
The iPhone 3G is coming … Friday
So are you thinking about the iPhone 3G? Do you know where you can buy it? You can locate a store near you where you can purchase your iPhone and find out what you need to bring with you by clicking on this link. If you’re new to AT&T, for example, you’ll need your current wireless account number and password.
iPhone 3G syncs with many applications on your Mac or PC. So if you organize your contacts, calendars, music, photos, and other information now, you’ll be ready to sync when you get your iPhone home. Learn more on how to get ready.
-
Contacts and CalendarsiPhone syncs with iCal and Address Book or Entourage on a Mac, with Outlook on a PC, and with Yahoo! Address Book and Google Contacts on the web.
-
EmailiPhone works with the most popular email systems—including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, and MobileMe. And iTunes syncs the settings from email accounts stored in Mail on a Mac or Outlook on a PC.
-
PhotosiPhone uses iTunes to sync photos from iPhoto on a Mac, or Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Album, or any picture folder on a PC.
-
Music and VideoIf you don’t have the latest version of iTunes, download it now and start a music and video library.
-
iTunes AccountIf you don’t have an iTunes Store account, set one up now by downloading iTunes, selecting the iTunes Store, and clicking the Sign In button in the upper-right corner.
A Guided Tour of the iPhone 3G
Thinking of getting the iPhone 3G? Get up to speed by watching the guided tour. Click on the picture or the link below.
Apple - iPhone - A Guided Tour
3G iPhone In-Store Activation Explained
Posted by Jack Cook on 06/30/08 in Apple, Rogers Wireless, iPhone
Looks like the supposed procedure for the launch of the 3G iPhone has been anonymously posted to an online discussion forum according to a post from Gear Diary.
Included is a link to what is said to be an advanced version of iTunes v7.6.3b4 that will allow the stores to “unbrick” the iPhones for in store activation. Apparently the new version of iTunes 7.7 due to be released on July 11 will include this activation mode.
If you are interested, there are a few launch week rules that you might want to check out here at Gear Diary
iPhone Update … No tethering allowed
Well this is certainly a bummer for those that were expecting to take advantage of their new iPhone’s capabilities.
With the iPhone 3G’s significantly faster data transfer rates and ability to perform voice and data functions simultaneously, potential buyers have become intoxicated with the idea of tethering the device: using it as a cellular modem for laptops — a service AT&T and other carriers offer for many other portable phones. iPhone Atlas has learned, however, that AT&T will not be offering tethering capabilities for the iPhone 3G.
Check out the story here at iPhone Atlas
SlingPlayer Mobile on the iPhone
Yesterday we(as well as a bunch of other folks) received an email from Sling Media talking about a proof of concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile. Matt Miller from The Mobile Gadgeteer also received the email and had an interesting comment saying that he was expecting a SlingPlayer Mobile client when the new iPhone 2.0 firmware was released and that it has him wondering what applications, if any, we will see actually available for us tomorrow.
Only time will tell … and that will be tomorrow! Stay tuned!
In part, the text of the email was:
Ever since the Apple iPhone hit the market, we’ve been receiving inquiries as to when we’ll have a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. To date we’ve only expressed our desire to support the platform when it is possible to do so. But with the Apple WWDC kicking off this week, we’re now ready to show off a bit of what we’ve done.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
We have a proof of concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile already running on ‘jail broken’ iPhones. We’ll be holding live demonstrations of this client on the iPhone and iPod Touch for those attending the WWDC. Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th. So if you’ll be in town attending WWDC, please stop by for an SPM demo. The demos are open to all comers, so please feel free to invite your readers to drop in as well. We do ask that you hold this news under embargo until midnight Eastern/9pm Pacific tonight.
We do not intend to make this available to customers, it is a proof of concept. We are looking forward to the iPhone SDK becoming publicly available this week and fully intend to develop SlingPlayer Mobile using the SDK and are looking forward to selling it through the iTunes store. We started the development process before the SDK was available to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that we could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. The results have been very promising and we are eagerly awaiting the SDK’s release so we can hopefully leverage what we have done already to deliver SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone
Windows Mobile and Opera Mobile 9.5
Matt Miller has a neat article that you might want to read where he talks about WIndows Mobile and the new Opera Mobile browser. Part of Matt’s discussion is his use of a mobile device and his need for web browsing. His biggest issue up to now has been the been the limitations you see with these browsers. In particular, he said the iPhone had the best for strictly browsing, but (there is always a BUT) it didn’t allow you to do much else (copy, paste, save, etc.). That could be reason #31 …
IMHO, Opera Mobile 9.5 is even better than the iPhone’s Safari browser because I can perform functions like text selection, copy and paste, manage passwords, and save or send images from a web page. The only pages that found incompatible so far are Google Docs. I was able to view spreadsheets in Google Docs, but not word processing documents. I could not edit either though, but since I don’t use Google Docs very much it isn’t a concern for me. One major improvement is that I can now access the custom WordPress ZDNet blog management page. With Opera Mobile 9.5 and the HTC Advantage I can perform blogging on the go with a single ultra mobile device.
Read the full article here at The Mobile Gadgeteer
It’s all in the eye of the beholder …
There will be a number of official accessories for the new diamond and the folks at Tracy and Matt’s Blog got a photo of the official desktop cradle. It looks really nice but then I saw a picture of the iPhone over at Engadget Mobile and I started to think about the design. When the iPhone first came out it looked pretty slick but as I look at the Diamond, it is very definitely slick! Sort of makes the iPhone look passe.
