Google has introduced a new version of Google Voice for the iPhone, making its service accessible via the Web in order to bypass any further furore with the iTunes App Store.
Google Voice allows users to make cheap long-distance calls and to forward calls from a single phone number to multiple phones, among other things.
The new version is accessed using iPhone
Yes, you are at 9to5mac. We’ve done a redesign!
Just a quick note here to announce that we’ve finally, after three years with the old design, had a chance to do some updates on the site. Besides the new look and feel, the page should load much quicker and look much better on small screens like the iPhone (and iPad!).
We’ve eliminated the news feeds along the left side but hope to make up for it with actively covering the interesting news stories and tweeting the ones that can be covered in 140 characters or less. We’ve also made the stock news a bigger part of the site because we know a lot of you not only follow Apple, you’ve invested as well.
We hope to be able to celebrate the site’s rebirth tomorrow by carrying a live feed of the tablet launch. We’re hoping to get video but might have to settle for audio only. Please spread the word and join us for that.
Big thanks to Jonny Evans and the rest of the 9to5mac crew for putting up with all of the trials lately.
Thanks to Jason and Alex at Think Simply Web Design & Development for all of their hard work on the redesign. If you need a reliable web developer (especially for Drupal) drop them a line.
I’m not sure how many of you have been with me/us for the past 3 years (we’re younger than the iPhone!) but the original site was designed pretty quickly by me while living overseas during my wife’s research fellowship. Since that time, I’ve been full time at work and part time here and Computerworld. Like a lot of you, I never really liked the design but I didn’t have time to fix it
Apple is in position to extend iTunes across all European nations following agreement of a key trans-European distribution deal – just in time to support future Apple tablet sales.
Few details are available right now, but it should deliver pan-European performing rights for Apple to offer music from all PRS members (which pretty much includes all labels offering music in the UK market) as well as mechanical and performing rights license for content from Peer Music and Chrysalis Music.
The deal also gives licensing framework for rights from other leading independent publishers (including those of the recently announced IMPEL scheme), a report explains. PRS For Music and Apple have signed the pan-European licensing deal.
The key move is significant because it should further Apple
The latest Apple tablet fakery or the real deal? The reflection is more than a little off for starters.
Good for a laugh…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Fi9V_ot4I&w=600&h=385]
Scrollmotion is the largest publisher to Apple’s App Store by far.
We currently offer over 2,500 best-selling books in the App Store, and are thrilled to announce we will soon be bringing more than a million books, as well as more than 50 major magazines and over 170 daily newspapers to the iPhone. Our content partners include most of the leading book, newspaper and magazine publishers in the United States, as well as a growing portfolio of film, television, and educational clients.
With their Iceberg reader software they are able to take a book and turn it into a interactive app quickly and at the same time add lots of interactive media. They’ve also got deals with all of the major publishing houses so it would make sense that theyd be involved with the Tablet’s eReading functionality, right?
I’d heard earlier that they were being bypassed by Apple, even though Apple brought them to stage at last year’s WWDC where they showed off the unreleased features of iPhone OS 3.0 (in-app purchases, etc.) for Iceberg reader.
The strange thing is that, when asked to comment, I got this reply:
Interesting
For those with older Apple Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboards you might want to hit that Software Update. The update is supposed to help with the battery life and a repeating key. In my case it was the rrrrrrrr.
I’m liveblogging the finacial call right now at Computerworld. Dayum 3.36 Million Macs!
Apple posted its Q1 2010 financial results today. 3.35 million Macs, revenue $15.68 Billion, profit: $3.38 Billion. Not too shabby. Press release follows:
Apple Reports First Quarter Results
All-Time Highest Revenue and Profit
CUPERTINO, California
Flickr user rafacst caught the first glimpses of the Yerba Buena center getting decked out for the Apple event.
Update: Cult of Mac has a load of pictures of the venue.
The New York Times is restructuring its business around eReaders (for some reason) this week. An internal memo picked up by the Wag de la Valley says that Yasmin Yamini is going to head that new Reader Applications department, probably one of the most important gigs at the Times. Here’s the super-secret internal memo with no mention of anything Apple:
Bob Morris, director of mobile computing at ARM, has been tight lipped about Apple’s relationship with ARM for quite awhile (believe me, I tried to get him to confirm the relationship). Today, however, he told Sylvie Barack, in the context of Apple’s tablet:
Imagine if your iPhone were natively capable of accessing information about points of interest in various locations, had the ability to poll data pertaining to train (or other) times, and had social networking features to boot?
All these features are available via individual apps, but a new Apple patent filing seems to put them all together, as spotted by the patent-curious Patently Apple.
Forget the AT&T exclusive – the iPhone should be available via all US carriers within 18-months, an analyst said today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysW2T0kf4As&w=600&h=385]
Via VentureBeat who appear to believe it?
The NYPost’s sources say that Verizon will be a carrier of the tablet and may in fact be announced as an iPhone partner on Wednesday, though might not be available as a carrier until the exclusivity agreement ends in June.
Apple is expected to name Verizon Wireless as one of its carriers with its anticipated unveiling of a new tablet device on Wednesday, sources told The Post. That means Apple head Steve Jobs will probably introduce a Verizon iPhone, ending AT&T’s exclusive hold on the hot smartphone. “It’s almost a certainty,” said telecom consultant Dunston Almeida. “AT&T losing iPhone is the worst-kept secret on Wall Street. The only question is whether Apple announces a Verizon iPhone this week.”
They went on to add what everyone has known since forever:
Apple has been “extremely frustrated” with AT&T’s iPhone service, which regularly drops customers’ calls, especially in high-traffic New York and San Francisco, said a source close to AT&T.
Don’t get your party hats and streamers out just yet. You’ll have to wait until June.
AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple ends in June, sources said.
Then there is poor AT&T who’ve apparently been unable to gain customer growth outside of iPhone users. What will they do when iPhone users have other carrier options? Drop prices? Improve service?
Apple likes to have big launch partners for their product launch events. The New York Times, according to the LA Times, is one such partner for the tablet launch. They’ve been sending a team out to Apple to work on this product for the past month.
A team from the New York Times has been working in Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters in recent weeks, developing a large-screen version of the newspaper’s iPhone application that incorporates video for the yet-to-be-unveiled device, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment.
We’re likely to see such a product at launch. The New York Times has been tied to the tablet on numerous occasions. When asked about the tablet, NY Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger declined to comment, saying only
We had a chance to speak with a few friends in the publishing business last week. Both work in Manhattan for companies not previously quoted by the Wall St. Journal or Bloomberg but who were recently contacted by Apple with tablet information in the past two weeks. Here’s what they’ve both corroborated:
Remember, the EBook reading functionality is just one part of this device. The tablet is also expected to be a game playing, media watching, netbook-competing powerhouse as well.
See you Wednesday!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDHMoku5eyU&w=560&h=340]
Battle between Apple and Google for the mobile space seems set to become fierce, with the latest IDC report claiming Android will beat Apple
A quiet weekend on the Apple news front saw an unusual report explaining where iPod and iPhone users can find rich sources of historically interesting music online.
The report offers a whistle stop tour of some of the websites which make digitised versions of 78rpm and cylinder recordings available to download – and these are free and legal as the recordings are out of copyright.
Of course, you may be on the hunt for more modern music, and for that why not take a look at Amazon
As reported earlier, developers began receiving the latest build of Apple
Flurry, an analytics company that tracks iPhone apps, says that over the weekend they started seeing Apple Tablets (no rez proof is published) which are running the iPhone OS 3.2 (not 4.0?). The tablets are running a variety of iPhone apps but seem to be leaning towards Games, Entertainment, News & Books and Lifestyle apps.
Update: I’ve gotten word from Flurry VP of Marketing, Peter Farago on the specifics below.
Hi Seth,
This is a fair question. We feel confident that we are looking at the tablet device for two main reasons, that I can share with you. Also note that, as a company, we have experience tracking new Apple hardware devices in the past.
1) If this were an iPhone we were looking at, the hardware would tell us when we ask it (via the software). So we can rule out that this is an iPhone. Also, we already see verified iPhone devices testing OS 4.0 and these leave (Apple’s Cupertino, CA) campus, whereas this device does not. This makes sense given the secrecy around the new tablet device as the launch event nears.
2) The apps being tested match up to what the devices is supposed to feature (e.g., news, books, etc.). We cannot share further detail here due to Terms of Service agreements we have with customers that use our service, but feel that if you were able to see the data we see, at the level of granularity, it would be clear to you as well.
Of course the truth will be revealed on Wednesday, but we wouldn’t publish such a report without a high level of confidence.
Flurry is not interested in building a business on rumor, but rather authority, credibility and accuracy.
Thanks,
Peter Farago
VP Marketing
Flurry, Inc.
According to TechCrunch he said that very thing to various different sources — that they’ve heard from second hand.
Jeez, like expectations weren’t high enough already. In any case, here’s a video from awhile ago…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjxacrSCYRE&w=600&h=385]
That would also be a bummer for his wife and kids…
HotHardware reports that AT&T’s exclusivity on the iPhone is a mere three days from being over. That would mean the announcement on Wednesday might not only be about Tabletmania, it might also be the ushering in of new mobile carrier partner(s) in the US. The report stopped short of naming Verizon, but it did mention that AT&T was sick of having the iPhone “hurt its image”:
Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before. On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it’s such a data hog, it’s largely to blame for AT&T’s network troubles. We don’t remember hearing about AT&T’s “horrible network” before the iPhone–do you? The iPhone itself doesn’t really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very well, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever the 3G bands aren’t optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE. It seems that AT&T is tired of taking the heat for this, and at this point, they may be smart to just let another carrier take some of those customers who are most inclined to complain.
Obviously, if Verizon or Sprint get the iPhone you won’t be able to just take your business over there. You’ll need a new CDMA iPhone as part of the deal and likely pay a hefty early termination fee to leave AT&T. Even on Tmobile, you won’t be able to get beyond EDGE speed on your current iPhone because of the difference in 3G radio frequency.
If true, the January 27th date may also prove to be the reason Apple chose to have its event then, instead of its usual Tuesday announcements.