iOS Devices

..and it would be ARM based anyway

More from Flicker via Giz

The amazing 3rd quarter for the Apple iPhone keeps claiming victims of the competition.  Today the NPD group is saying that even the once mighty Motorola Razr has fallen to the mighty iPhone.

Apple’s iPhone 3G surpassed the top-ranked Motorola RAZR as the leading handset purchased by adult consumers* in the U.S. in the third quarter (Q3) of 2008. RAZR had been ranked by NPD as the top-selling consumer handset for the past 12 quarters.

 Not bad Apple, not bad.

(thanks to sour snowflakes for the image)

What better way to promote the Apple iPhone/iPod touch ecosystem than showcase the game changer apps?

Yahoo! Finance
Quote for AAPL/

Let’s just say we have a hunch on this one.  Sony iTunes Plus high quality AAC files coming to the iTunes store in the next few weeks/months..same deal, 256kbit quality, no DRM.

Now when are they going to drop the "BMG"?  We have no idea.

Two parts ingenious, one part hilarious, the new Ocarina iPhone Application is putting our late night infomercial hero to shame.  The app actually uses the mic port to detect air blowing into the devices and converts it to kick ass music. One note, while it is beyond awesome on our 3G iPhone trials, it doesn’t seem to work on EDGE iPhones – the speaker is too close to the mic. 

A little ‘Stairway’ (o noes!) after the break.

Introduction

Ocarina is the first true musical instrument created for the iPhone. Both experts and beginners will be amazed by this innovative player. Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements, making it even more versatile than the original. Unlike other musical applications, there are no pre-compiled riffs so musicians will find unlimited opportunities for self-expression. Advanced options allow you to choose between diatonic, minor and harmonic scales. Or channel your favorite video game adventurer with Smule’s Zeldarian mode.

Also, like most Smule products, Ocarina is a social application. Tap on the globe icon and you will see and hear other Ocarina players throughout the world. The globe view will highlight the source of the music. Rate your favorite performances so that others may benefit from your judgment. Name your Ocarina if you want listeners around the world to identify your performances. With this robust application beautiful music is created, appreciated and shared.

Optimized for 3G phones; for first generation phones we recommend upgrading to the 2.2 firmware when it becomes available.

Who would have thought it? Businesses like the iPhone.  Will we see an Enterprise Halo Effect?

Besides Qik video streaming, currently the number one reason to jailbreak your iPhone is easy, fast, wifi tethering.  We currently use PDANet which takes about 10 seconds to get going and runs fantastically over Wifi.  You can even attach more than one computer and all of your Internet apps work (unlike NetShare).  The one downside is that it does wear the battery down pretty durn fast.  Not a problem if you just plug into your laptop’s USB however.

Back to the news at hand.  AT&T is announcing that they are going to probably make some sort of 3G tethering plan available.  Bluetooth?  USB?  Wifi?  No one knows.  However, what’s almost certain is that it will cost more than the PDANet’s $Free.99.

You’ll have to excuse us if we’re not excited.

What you see here is a fairly interesting video (btw, thanks Crunkgear). Someone has hacked a real keyboard onto an iPhone. Cool right?

Thing is, this is a glimpse of the future. Not the Macworld ’09 future, more like the WWDC ’09 type of future. The iPhone docking plug will kind of take a reverse role where it will now connect to peripherals whereas before the iPhone was the peripheral.

You’ll plug in a connector (or UWB if you are into that type of thing) into a monitor.   Keyboard/Trackpad/Internet of course will all be wireless.   Yes, the iPhone is your computer.  Your netbook.  In less than 1 year.  Cortex A8, PA Semi. 

note: No sources were used in making of this post. Just speculation of the purest variety..

Surprisingly, it didn’t go so well…

Gearlog via MDN

http://astore.amazon.com/thepartim-20

Softbank announced that they will be offering a mobile TV add-on for Japanese iPhone users

The 80 gram device is a separate unit with tuner and aerial that retransmits the signal over Wi-fi to the phone. The iPhone (and can we assume iPod touch here?) connects via a special iPhone app that’ll be distributed free when the device hits stores in mid December for a suggested low low price of around $100.

That’s not all! If you buy today, you’ll recieve a special (built-in) iPhone charger at no additional cost.  Operators are standing by.

We don’t have to tell you that in Safari you can enable Show Develop menu in menu bar (Prefs/advanced) then go to Develop/Useragent iPhone to get free wifi on your MacBook do we?

Update: The fine folks in the comments have pointed out that yes, you will need to have an AT&T iPhone account to do this.  Is there anyone left who doesn’t?

Update 2: OK, the easiest way to do this is to download a MAC address spoofer and once you legitimize your iPhone, change your MacBook Airport MAC address to be the same as your iPhones.  This is much quicker and easier than typing the URL sent by AT&T.

Via Engadget

Sonos this morning introduced its own music control software for the iPhone, an application which does indeed emulate some of the core features of the device – prompting talk of a sea change at Apple over music apps.

Apple has been known to reject applications which duplicate some of its own core iPhone features – Mail, Safari and iTunes all exist on the device with no competing applications generally allowed to take up residence there.

This morning’s news from Sonos suggests a change in the game. For a start, Sonos has moved to embrace Apple’s device as a powerful, WiFi-enabled remote control, suggesting that company itself seeks a more holistic place for its solutions within ecosystems created by other manufacturers.

The move to produce an iPhone app could mark a sea change among manufacturers focused on creating an infrastructure for the digital home. Until now, solutions such as Sonos and the Apple devices that fill this gap have generally failed to integrate together. With Sonos and Apple now finding a way to work together, the hint is that the future of such systems will depend on a universal remote control – the iPhone, iPod touch, or some other system, should a viable one emerge.

What stands in the way of such an event is Apple’s reluctance to open up its systems to other music-based solutions developers – until now, such offerings have generally been rejected as Apple won’t allow the apps generated to take a place on the App Store.

Mark Mulligan at Jupiter Research notes the introduction of the Sonos application could mark a sea change in Cupertino, “The Sonos app has numerous overlaps and indeed it creates a new, self-contained iTunes-like environment within the device when active. So that’s a big step forward, enabling Apple to stride into the digital home on the back of other companies technology and investment.”

Is Apple preparing to open up to others for music? And just how far will it go to ensure its technologies, including iTunes, hold a central place in the future evolution of the digital home?

Sonos has introduced iPhone software which controls its products and also adds support for Pandora and Last.fm.

Sonos Controller for iPhone is available for free download from the App Store and allows users to control the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. 

Simply pick a room, pick a song and hit play. Play the same song in every room in perfect synchronization, or play different songs in every room. Browse by pointing and flicking.

The Sonos Controller for iPhone also promises direct access to music services including Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, SIRIUS Internet Radio, 15,000 plus radio stations, shows and more. The software also offers users control over their entire music collection located on any computer on their home network, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive and even a Time Capsule.

"The Sonos Controller for iPhone is another example of Sonos offering features and applications that make the system better, at no cost to our current or future customers," said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos. "Today’s announcement enables all of our customers to use a great personal product from Apple to control the world’s best multi-room music system."

The Sonos Controller for iPhone requires an iPhone or iPod touch and at least one Sonos ZonePlayer to operate. 

In conjunction with the new Sonos Controller for iPhone, today Sonos also introduced Sonos Software 2.7. This includes new support for a suite of music content including free access to more than 15,000 radio stations and podcasts from around the world, Last.fm and Pandora.

And here’s a video showing how it works, OK?

http://feedroom.businessweek.com/linking/index.jsp?skin=oneclip&fr_story=6539d1aea12aaa20a99df5f93bb006a62f2b2d47&rf=ev&hl=true

Wow, never in the history of product naming has something been so blatantly disingenuous.  I guess "F the cloud" and "the cloud is BS" were taken.

Think Product names don’t matter?  How about IBM Eclipse and Sun’s Java?

Frankly, we don’t know why we didn’t see this coming.  The iPhone has a pretty solid mobile 3D chip, loads of caching space, GPS and an awesome touch interface.  All perfect for a mobile version of Google Earth. 

The app is pretty solid but a little clunky to start up.  It does include Panaramio pictures, Wikipedia entries that are geotagged and bunch of other nice stuff.  We do get a pretty consistant crash when we try to move after a GPS lookup – your mileage may vary.

Get Google Earth for iPhone/iPod Touch (iTunes link)

Google Announcement

A few reviews:

GEarth Blog

C|Net

It isn’t ready for those whopping 12 markets where T-mobile has 3G yet, but it is growing ever closer as the the Dev Team is now knee deep in Baseband noodling. We expected a full Baseband neutering in weeks, not months.  Time to call your buddies in Hong Kong.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2069634&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

How about you Vodaphone users in the UK?  You are a little excited, admit it.

OK, for the noobs out there…the iPhone is tied to a network because there is a lock on the baseband in the 3G iPhone.  In the original iPhone this was hacked which allowed the iPhone to be distributed throughout the world and contributed to its success.  Most people think about 1/3 of the original 6 million iPhones (now probably more) were distributed through this means.

Until now, the 3G iPhone’s baseband hasn’t been able to be hacked because of increased security measures by Apple.  Now it looks like those will be circumvented as well.

This may not be as big a deal as last time however because you have to buy the iPhone with a plan in most instances AND it is available in many more global markets which will eliminate a lot of the demand. 

It will still be nice to be able to plop another SIM into our iPhones when we go overseas (like before ;)