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Under the radar – 11am GMT October 14

Well, we had a deluge of new data pouring in overnight – Apple’s new iFrame format, unjailbreakable iPhones and we found out Apple may plan to implement the radios inside the iPhone and iPod touch (both of which have chips capable of radio which just aren’t switched on – why?)…

With all that, this morning’s reports are tame in comparison, and it’s iPhone, iPhone, iPhone (we found a little Mac, read on): the iPhone sales are sending Australian smartphone sales into orbit; there’s to be an Apple store in Brisbane Australia; new jailbreak tools for iPhone; revised marketshare predictions see iPhone down in fourth place in future smartphone biz; Google Wave already works on iPhone; watch the video of an iPhone starting a car; Shazam wins iFund backing; Real’s Rhapsody plans offline streaming for iPhone; EMI opens up to Grooveshark… And a couple of good Apple gadget deals. All after the blip.

iPhone soars down under
Apple’s iPhone has sent Australian smartphone shipments up 29 percent year on year in the first half of 2009, according to IDC. Analyst, Mark Novosel, said, "What the iPhone has done is ensure that all other manufactures have had to include similar features. The whole industry has benefited as a result of the iPhone in terms of the rapid pace of innovation, which has intensified of the past couple of years."
Data-centric smartphones exceeded voice-centric devices for the first time, accounting for 51 per cent of all smartphone shipments in Q1 2009, rising further to 65 per cent by the end of Q2.

Read it here

Apple store to open in Brisbane
Australia’s clearly a new target market for Apple, as the company plans to open its sixth retail store there, this time in Brisbane.
No word yet on when the new shop’s set to open, but the first signs went up outside the retail block it’s to be situated in today.

Read it here

New jailbreak tools
Just to let you know:
“The Dev Team has struck again, negating the security work of the iPhone 3.1.2 update. Looks like it’ll work even if you’ve never jailbroken your phone before”.

– The iPhone 3GS is now supported out of the box in PwnageTool 3.1.4 (or if you have upgraded to 3.1.x in iTunes)
– The iPod 2G is still supported in PwnageTool 3.1.4 but you must already be jailbroken (we’ll update this if there’s a big demand from non-jailbroken ipt2G owners)
– The iPod touch 3G is NOT supported

Read it here

Does Gartner know the smartphone biz
So there was this recent report which pegged the iPhone as becoming the number three smartphone maker, which came out of Gartner the other day, right?
Well, now it seems the analysts have had new figures which means they have revised their original figures (which were based on figures) to see the iPhone slotted down into fourth place.

The figures then:
Symbian – 37.4 percent
Android – 18 percent
BlackBerry – 13.9 percent
iPhone – 13.6 percent
Windows Mobile – 9 percent

Read it here

Google Wave – already for iPhone
Erick Shonfeld at TechCrunch: “But here is where it gets interesting. In addition to the Web app via the mobile Safari browser, you can get rid of the Safari wrapper altogether. Just like with any Web page on the iPhone, you can save a bookmark on your Home screen, and it creates a little icon which launches mobile Safari to that page. When you save the Wave bookmark to your Home screen, however, something different happens. You go to Wave, but without the Safari wrapper which allows you to navigate to another page or search the Web. Instead, it looks more like a regular app and there is no way to navigate away from it. Everything else works the same as in the mobile browser version.”

Read it here

ViperSmart – you know you want this…
“Are you tired of carrying around another clunky remote control on your keyring, or finding yourself out of range when you really need to warm up or cool down your car before getting in? Now you can remote start or lock and unlock your car just by pushing a button on your iPhone or iPod Touch; using the exciting new Viper SmartStart app from Directed Electronics, the leader in vehicle security and remote start.
“The simple graphical interface gives you control over the following features of your installed Viper remote start or security/remote start system: Lock/arm/ Unlock/disarm/ Remote car starter/ Trunk release/ Panic or car finder
“You can also control multiple vehicles – great for families! – and assign more than one user to control a vehicle. It’s easy with SmartStart!”

Watch the clip below – more news below

Shazam takes iFund cash
Mobile music discovery service Shazam has announced that it now has over 50 million users, with 10 million of those having downloaded its iPhone app. Meanwhile, the company has taken new investment from VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which runs the $100 million iFund to invest in iPhone development.
Shazam will add more recommendation and sharing features, as well as video content, and ticket and merchandise sales.

Read it here

Rhapsody plots offline playback for iPhone app
Sometimes you almost feel sorry for Real. They seem to be losing fans fast, even the Rhapsody iPhone app gets a bum rap in comparison with Spotify.
Now in a desperate fightback to regain what relevance the company can ever possible have in the future online, Real’s gonna give Rhapsody the power to play songs stored on the device offline under its media streaming service (like Spotify). I’m not positive on Real’s long-term outlook, people.

Read it here

EMI kisses Grooveshark
EMI has reached a licensing deal with US streaming music service, Grooveshark, scant months after suing it for copyright infringement. The deal is US-only, and terms are undisclosed. The basic version of Grooveshark is free and ad-supported, so clearly EMI is still licensing these kinds of services.
It makes Grooveshark a major contender in the emerging US music-streaming space because A) it is one of the first to have a deal with a major US publisher and B) Grooveshark does not require any downloads or registration to ‘search and play’ (unlike its competitors). Grooveshark has a specific focus in helping signed and unsigned artists build and monetize their careers, while making on-demand streaming music easy and legal for the public to access.

Read it here

Deals of the day

US deal: We still can’t help talking about the strangely compelling HDMI (2 meter) 6 foot cable for one cent (one cent!!) deal through Amazon US, but the postage raises the cost – why not combine that one useful cable with another product, perhaps the Kensington 64343 MicroSaver DS Notebook Computer Lock with Keys (PC/Mac), which has seen $30 lopped off its price and sets you back just $29.99 – with a $15 rebate on that for a total cost of just $14.99. That’s a good deal for a Kensington lock…

UK deal: So winter’s coming, there’s nothing much on TV, it’s cold and going out feels such a chore – you need some music, and the Klipsch iGroove iPod Speaker System Black compatible with 3rd Gen Touch and 5th Gen Nano is one of the best iPod speaker systems around – and has been discounted by 40 percent, so it’s going to cost you £89.99, rather than the £149.99 book price. Take a look…

Do check by later for more of 9to5Mac’s regularly updated, always at the leading edge, always independent refined blend of Apple news.

 

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