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Google Phone (Nexus One) leaks continue. Jan 5th invite-only release

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 23 2009 - 10:27 am PT
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Does anyone believe that these leaks aren’t orchestrated by Google? Today Gizmodo and Engadget both got leaked information about the Nexus One handset from Google. 

Gizmodo got to play with one and compare it to the iPhone and the Droid.  The Nexus One is thinner and lighter than the iPhone with a faster processor and better screen according to Editor, Jason Chen.  The results on web browsing speed were pretty close, however, even though the Nexus one has a bigger screen.  Gizmodo said the 3.7 inch AMOLED screen was the best they’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

Engadget, meanwhile got the hard specs on the device, which don’t reveal many surprises but confirm a lot of the speculation.  They also got word that it will have an invite-only retail sales start on January 5th.

 

  • Android 2.1
  • 11.5mm thick
  • 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB
  • 5 megapixel camera with mechanical AF and LED flash
  • HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100, 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up — in other words, yes to T-Mobile 3G and no to AT&T 3G, though you’ll still be fine on EDGE
  • 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display

 

Background Check app brings up all of that old stuff (mega-privacy invasion coming)

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 23 2009 - 8:45 am PT
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Remember that fight you got into in high school?  Or that time you got busted for weed in college?  Well, now your employer, in-laws, prospective dates, and new friends will have easy access to all of your police records right from their iPhone via the free Background Checker App (App Store link) from BeenVerified.com.

The application also helps stalkers find all kinds of information on their targets including pictures, social network interaction, relatives and other horribly invasive information.  The app will even search your contacts for criminals!  Zoikes. 

 

 

Instant Background Checks Now on the iPhone
Background checks are no longer just for large corporations. Thanks to a new application from BeenVerified.com, anyone can run a background check while at home or on the go, right from their iPhone. The appropriately named

Microsoft loses XML patent case, Word, Office face 11 Jan ban

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 23 2009 - 4:02 am PT
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Proving that sometimes the law does have teeth, even when dealing with the biggest corporations, a US Judge yesterday denied a Microsoft appeal, offering a judgment which could see Word and Office removed from sale starting January 11.

Canadian developer i4i first sued Microsoft in 2007, accusing the US company of illegally using its XML editing technology in the popular Word software line. In May, a Texas jury said Microsoft violated i4i’s patent, and ordered it to pay i4i nearly $300 million in damages.

Microsoft filed various appeals and won a six-month delay in execution of the order to remove Word and Office in their current forms from sale. Now the Court of Appeals has upheld that injunction.

The case is likely to head two ways at this point – an appeal to the US Supreme Court or a settlement (financial deal) between Microsoft and i4i – otherwise Word and Office will be withdrawn from sale while various XML features are removed.

Microsoft will comply with the decision, a company spokesman said today. “We are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which takes effect on 11 January, 2010,” said Kevin Kutz, the director of public affairs for Microsoft, in an email.

iPhone-in-iPhone augmented reality app is a good sandbox

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 23 2009 - 1:11 am PT
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…or maybe it is just eye candy.  Whatever, take a look:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4IjeO7g6kA&w=600&h=385]

A promotional augmented reality app by Ogmento. Developed to promote the iPhone launch by Orange Telecom Israel. Point your iphone to an Orange logo and watch a virtual iPhone appears hovering over the logo. Use finger gestures to turn the iphone around, zoom in or out

Nielson data: Apple takes 4% of US cell phone market. That isn’t much.

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 22 2009 - 11:11 pm PT
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Notice that title is a bit different than what you are seeing around the Web?  Everyone is giving this story an extremely positive slant towards Apple, but it just isn’t so.  Even in the PC marketplace, the Mac has more than 4% of the US market, yet everyone getting excited because Nielson is presenting their data in a way that makes Apple’s iPhone the tops for 2009.

To start getting excited, you want to wait until the iPhone starts putting up numbers like iPod, which consistently surpasses 70% of the MP3 market.

First of all, they are counting the iPhone 3G and 3GS as one device.  They are also counting the different configurations 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc. as one device even though they have significantly different costs.  All of that isn’t a problem except they don’t group all of the other handset makers’ devices the same way.  If they had, just the four LG phones on Nielsen’s  top 10 list would have beat Apple by over 50%. Blackberry would have beat them by more than 50% too.

Yet, four percent isn’t bad, especially since Apple is only two and a half years into selling these things (and only was after 1% for the first year) and ‘dumb phones’ like Motorola’s RAZR still outsell smartphones by a significant margin.  

But to say that the iPhone is the best selling device, you have to play with the numbers.

 

Tablet event next month, launch in March?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 22 2009 - 10:20 pm PT
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The Financial Times today rehashed most of the WSJ piece from yesterday on Apple taking on the cable companies with possible streaming agreements from ABC and CBS.  They took it one step further by saying that the tablet, which was mentioned in the WSJ piece, is coming VERY soon:

“Apple is preparing an announcement next month that many anticipate will be the official unveiling of its tablet, but the company has so far declined to confirm the existence of the device. Wall Street analysts expect mass production of an Apple tablet to begin as early as February.”

Remember, however, that the FT said in July that the Apple Tablet was coming before Christmas and that it would be part of Cocktail (iTunes LP).

BBC plan for TV online sees an Apple TV set-top box for IPTV

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 22 2009 - 7:42 am PT
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Rest assured: TV broadcasters are serious about taking themselves online: YouTube now offers TV shows through its service; Apple is speaking to the networks with a view to offering TV subscription shows streamed over the internet via iTunes; and the BBC has received approval for its plan to create a platform for Internet TV broadcasting.

This could be a blow to cable and satellite TV companies by making much of the content they keep behind their paid-for wall more easily available through other media. Increasingly, it

Video: How Apple's 3D display patents could impact across industry

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 22 2009 - 7:19 am PT
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http://www.softwareadvice.com/contrib/flowplayer/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CbaseURL%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esoftwareadvice%2Ecom%2Fcontrib%2Fflowplayer%27%2CcontrolBarGloss%3A%27low%27%2CcontrolBarBackgroundColor%3A%2D1%2CcontrolsOverVideo%3A%27ease%27%2CshowVolumeSlider%3Afalse%2CinitialScale%3A%27scale%27%2Cloop%3Afalse%2CautoPlay%3Afalse%2CvideoFile%3A%27%2Fimglib%2Fapple%2D3d%2Dfor%2Dconstruction%2Emp4%27%7D

There was lots of excitement when Apple

Hurry up and download an NES emulator that slipped into the App Store

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 21 2009 - 9:44 pm PT
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Update: It has been pulled, you’ll have to jailbreak to get an NES emulator now.

We’re not sure how this one slipped through, but Nescaline, a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator is in the App Store as we speak.  Yes, Apple has prohibited emulators in the past as a security measure although it did eventually approve a Commodore64 emulator.  Nescaline comes with five homebrew apps but allows you to download NES.roms from the Internet by providing a URL.  We’re sure no one will upload any pirated ROMs.

Doesn’t sound very Appley does it?  We don’t expect this one to last 24 hours in the App Store.  Get it at the App Store now ($6.99)

The developer is Jonathan Zdziarski, who besides being the last guy in the phone book is also the author of O’Reilly’s iPhone forensics.  From the developer:

Kick it old school with home-brew games written for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Nescaline allows you to play public domain NES games, five of which are included, or use Nescaline’s download feature to add games to your library from any remote URL.

Features:
– Multitouch support; use the directional pad and A+B or many other combinations together.
– Works with many zapper-enabled games. Simply touch the screen where you want to shoot.
– Save-state allows you to save games in progress and later restore them to the state they were in when you left the game.
– Supports both landscape and portrait mode, in both full screen or original resolution
– Enter Game Genie codes to enable cheats for your favorite games.
– Alternate frame skip, palette, and advanced settings.

Nescaline works well with many freely available home-brew and public domain games, but is not guaranteed to work with all of them. Author does not condone the piracy of commercial games.

For optimal performance, an iPhone 3Gs is recommended, but not required.

NOTE: Nescaline is in no way affiliated with Nintendo of America or its affiliates. Nescaline does not contain any intellectual property or copyrighted material owned by Nintendo of America or its affiliates.

 

Apple prepares to sign Disney and CBS to stream shows over the Internet (Tablet in March)

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 21 2009 - 9:03 pm PT
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It looks like AppleTV might soon (within a year) have a purpose.  That Apple TV subscription service we heard about earlier this year looks like it may soon have two signups….and they are HUGE.

According to the Wall (Street Journal)…

CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co. are considering participating in Apple Inc.’s plan to offer television subscriptions over the Internet, according to people familiar with the matter, as Apple prepares a potential new competitor to cable and satellite TV.

Boom!  Certainly Jobs’ position on Disney’s Board is helping to move Disney (ABC) to Apple’s platform.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if that his personal sale of Pixar to Disney was what gave Apple its chance as a Internet Network?  

The WSJ mentions that CBS doesn’t have an interest in Hulu (like the other 3 majors) and also doesn’t have a big stake in cable networks so they’d be a natural choice as well.

As always, the devil is in the details:

In at least some versions of the proposal, Apple would pay media companies about $2 to $4 a month per subscriber for a broadcast network like CBS or ABC, and about $1 to $2 a month per subscriber for a basic-cable network, people familiar with the proposals said. Those amounts are in some cases much higher than media companies receive from traditional distributors. The question is whether selling fewer networks at higher prices is better business. Apple’s TV proposal may be changing as the company woos networks, according to people familiar with the matter. An initial version of the proposal had envisioned selling access to advertising-free shows from a bundle of top cable and broadcast networks

Will Apple and Microsoft join together to fight Google?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 21 2009 - 7:41 pm PT
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Even a year ago, most would have scoffed at the idea of Apple having to partner with Microsoft to fight off Google.  Google and Apple even shared two Directors, including Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.  Microsoft, on the other hand, has been Apple’s traditional rival since Windows was released two decades ago.

What a difference a year makes.  As RWW and PCWorld point out, the idea isn’t as far fetched now.  Apple and Google are no longer friendly, no longer share directors and most importantly now compete in key areas.  Apple’s most important product for the future is the iPhone platform and Microsoft is hardly competing in this area.  Google, on the other hand, seems to be the up and coming threat to Apple’s iPhone.

This rivalry has been getting nasty lately with Google swopping in and picking up Admob before Apple could buy it, then Apple buying Lala after Google started making bids.   Before that, Apple turned down Latitude and Google Voice (and Navigation?) on the iPhone.  Google has started to release its products on Android first, if not on Android-only.  Apple bought Placebase this year, according to some, to replace Google Maps on its iPhone platform.

Google also has a new laptop OS on the way that will run a WebKit based Chrome browser which could compete with OSX/Safari.  They also have free office apps which compete with Apple’s paid-for platform.  Speaking of paid services, Google offers a free alternative to Apple’s MobileMe.   Microsoft also competes in these fields but it might make sense for the two giants to fend off the up-and-comer at some point.

Microsoft and Apple already have done work on the iPhone to support Exchange, while Google Apps is more difficult to get working natively on the iPhone.

Would it surprise anyone to see Apple offer Bing as a search alternative in Safari?  How about Microsoft building iPhone versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint?  That’s only the beginning.

If Google continues to encroach on the two giants’ main revenue generators, I’d expect to see much more ‘cooperation between Cupertino and Redmond.

Apple releases a firmware update for 27-inch iMac flickering issues

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 21 2009 - 3:33 pm PT
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Hopefully this fixes some of those issues we’ve been hearing about on 27-inch iMacs.  The firmware update, or specifically the issue it fixes, might have been resposible for Apple’s delaying the the delivery for the larger iMacs to after Christmas.  According to Apple, the 683K file “updates the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering.”  What do you think?

Tapulous claims near $1 million/month Apple iPhone turnover

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 21 2009 - 6:53 am PT
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDHMoku5eyU&w=560&h=340]

iPhone app developer, Tapulous, says sales of its software have approached $1 million per month, evidence that the App Store has driven success toward new start-ups in the mobile space.

The company claims its game, Tap Tap Revenge, has been installed over 20 million times with over 600 million games played in total. ComScore this year claimed the game had been installed by one-third of iPhone and iPod touch customers.

Buoyed by this success, Tapulous now expects to surf the coming wave of popularity for mobile apps, predicting competitors won

WWDC 2010 to be held Monday, June 28 to Friday, July 2?

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 20 2009 - 8:23 pm PT
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It is a bit early to be calling this one, but it looks pretty likely that this year’s WWDC will be held on from Monday, June 28 to Friday, July 2, 2010.  What makes us think so?  Moscone Center’s summer schedule (below) has a “Corporate Event” scheduled for those dates.  Apple has used this un-named moniker in the past to reserve their dates at the convention center.

If you are planning on attending, it might make sense to avoid making appointments for that week (and why not be the first to book fully refundable travel reservations?).  If scheduled as such, the event would also overlap with the 3rd anniversary of the release fo the iPhone and also AT&T’s contract.

WWDC is traditionally when Apple rolls out its new iPhone hardware and software along with other product announcements.  This year’s event could see such far fetched items as a tablet and/or new iPhone mobile carriers.  Thanks to BBTRINET