iOS Devices

Originally unveiled last month, we’ve seen some nice new improvements for Google Maps and Mobile, surely we won’t be waiting forever for these to appear for iPhone?

Techcrunch points us to what looks like an amazing new game for the iPhone.  iGolf allows you to use a regular swing to launch the ball off of the tee.  You can pick different clubs and you swing matters.  Perhaps it will take a few points off of your game?  Amazing, and it is free!  iTunes link

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/Ac34I4u8cA]

Gizmodo has the details…what do you guys make of it?

Yes!  According to Reuters.  Will it suck?  Yes, according to precedent.  They are also going to be making…wait for it…a remote control application as well.

Yes, the iPhone already has some pretty good video and VoIP applications – in fact the only thing holding them back from being better is…um AT&T…  AT&T currently only allows VoIP applications to work on WiFi.  Video on Youtube is compressed over AT&T’s network.  But by the end of the year, all of this will change:

At an event on Monday to showcase some recently developed technologies that are not yet being marketed, AT&T emphasized that in the future, consumers should be able to use their phones, computer and television in more interesting ways.

"We’re looking at the whole landscape, of what people use, and what’s out there in the home," said AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan, adding that some of the services may be launched by the end of the year.

Amazing. 

Imagine what you could do if you weren’t being blocked by AT&T (or by Apple’s App Store requirements).  You could do a Fring type of application with visual voicemail.  Or a Slingbox application.  All tied to AT&T at premium prices WITH lock in. You could get things like:

For example, consumers will be able to listen to their voice mails on their screens, and download shows from their digital video recorders onto their iPhones.

They also will be able to use their iPhones to navigate channels like a normal remote control, and for entertainment purposes like virtually hurling tomatoes at the TV screen using iPhone applications.

We hope Apple got something good out of this whole deal…consumers certainly aren’t.

As a pilot that has been out of the loop for a few years, I have to say this one caught me by surprise.   I had no idea they’d be able to cram a full fledged flight sim onto the iPhone.  Bye bye $10 (iTunes link).

From Laminar Research:

X-Plane-iPhone is now here for iPhone and iPodTouch!
Go to iTunes, hit the HOME button, APP STORE, then then go to category GAMES, sub-category SIMULATIONS!
This is fun little mini-version of X-Plane that lets you fly 4 planes around the X-Plane demo area! The flight physics of the iPhone are actually about 95% as good as the physics in X-Plane, and the scenery is even pretty decent! You TILT the phone to fly! It is so cool that it is ridiculous.
X-Plane for iPhone is only $9.99, so grab it today … it is fun! Be sure to write a review if you like it!

(note: To fly it, simply click the brakes off, drag the throttle up on the left, and tilit the phone back to raise the nose when you have flying speed! Click around the center of the screen to invoke the view and settings controls.)

Here’s some more..

In this clip enjoy a quick glimpse at the iPhone Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot Dem, you build the robot integrating one iPhone, and control the system from another. Which is kinda cool.

Via: Cult of Mac

UK mobile phone network, 3, has slammed Apple’s chosen iPhone carrier, O2, saying the latter’s 3G network "doesn’t do justice" to the iPhone.

Naturally there’s an element of sour grapes to these claims. Owned by Hutchison Telecom, 3 in the UK had complained that its efforts to carry the iPhone 3G on its network had been given short thrift by Apple management. In truth, the parent company has achieved iPhone 3G distribution deals in some territories, for example Macau.

Speaking at a company event, 3’s indirect sales director Bernie O’Beirne said: "‘The iPhone is not on the right network, a handset is only as good as its operator," saying Apple had picked the wrong partner. The company also issued a later statement in which it questioned O2’s tariffs and accused the latter carrier of having "the least developed 3G network," a report claims

3 aims to double the size of its UK business this year – though whether it can rely on Apple’s help in this, having slated the company’s exclusive UK iPhone carrier, is debatable.

We weren’t the only ones excited about Apple’s announcement of the new In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic. A quick look at this thread on discussions.apple.com reveals acute interest from iPhone owners in the dual-driver buds, which ostensibly offer "pro audio" quality at the seemingly impossible price point of $79. The only catch was that they didn’t list iPhone in the Compatibility Information statement. Odd, but we didn’t want to annoy the fanboys by rushing to judgment. We thought we’d wait until the 2.1 upgrade came out for iPhone and check the product page again to see if it was merely a software update that was required.

24 hours hence, we got nothing. Are we left, then, to assume that the lack of compatibility is a hardware, and not a software issue? Is it a fact that the top-of-the-line Apple headphones are incompatible with Apple’s top-of-the-line mobile device? The implication is "yes." In all likelihood, iPhone owners will have to wait until the next-generation iPhone to adopt this accessory.

Lest we sound too whiny, the consensus on Apple’s discussion boards is that the headphones will be able to perform all advertised functions on an iPhone, except for the volume control function. That’s okay, we guess, since we didn’t have volume control on the factory headphones, but it’s still kind of crappy not to have. This is to say nothing of the 1G iPhones with the recessed audio port (worst idea EVER). The owners of those can now add another little item to the list of arguments for upgrading to 3G (if it turns out the 3Gs ARE compatible with the new buds) or waiting until the next-generation iPhone which will do your dishes, make your bed, and zap your cellulite, but still cause GSM buzz in your car stereo.

Another beef that has been revived with these new headphones is the standard "why can’t Apple offer headphones in black?" lament. From a sales perspective, this would make sense for apple, but from a marketing and differentiation perspective, we don’t think it will happen. Tilt at some other windmills, folks. We’d also like to point out that if you’re afraid of getting ‘pod-jacked because of your white headphone cables, you’re probably just a paranoid <expletive>.

So what do think? Is there still any hope for iPhone compatibility with the fancy new headphones? Are there other ultra-geeky headphones out there that are as good or better and not 10x the cost? Help us out in the comments.

HP is tired of Vista hatred hurting its sales.  Actually, it isn’t just tired, it is doing something about it.   According to Businessweek, HP is doing an end around of Windows by inventing its own OS.  According to their sources, HP is basing the  simpler OS on Linux:

Still, the sources say employees in HP’s PC division are exploring the possibility of building a mass-market operating system. HP’s software would be based on Linux, the open-source operating system that is already widely available, but it would be simpler and easier for mainstream users, the sources say. The goal may be to make HP less dependent on Windows and to strengthen HP’s hand against Apple, which has gained market share in recent years by offering easy-to-use computers with its own operating system.

All HP is admitting to now is that they have a few guys working on some tools that work outside of Vista.  Businessweek doesn’t buy it.  They contend:

At HP, there are competitive issues driving its software effort. One person who has advised HP executives on strategy says they are concerned that Apple could develop a notebook computer that would sell for less than $1,000. That’s a fast-growing market HP depends on for sales where Apple has yet to compete. "Apple is a huge motivating factor," says the source.

Apple developing a low cost laptop?  HP ain’t dumb.

So, news is that TeleNav, like Tom-Tom, is developing software that will transform the iPhone (or iPod touch) into a proper GPS device….

iPhone already has location awareness, which TeleNav hopes to harness in its GPS application which it hopes to ship in the next few months, Forbes explains.

"The firm is tight-lipped about the software’s exact features, but says the application will resemble the mapping features it developed for the Samsung Instinct, another touchscreen phone," the report explains. 

Company rep Sal Dhanani said,  "Apple being Apple, the iPhone app will have some additional flair. It will be cooler, have more pizazz."

Interestingly, the company spokesman also said TeleNav has no problem opening up its applications data and maps to others for use in other applications. 

Via: MacDailyNews

Keeping its promise, Apple released iPhone Software 2.1 this morning, promising a range of bug fixes and much improved battery life.

The update is a 238MB download. To get it, connect your iPhone to your computer using iTunes 8 and follow the on-screen instructions

Let’s find out what’s inside – any improvements? Any new features?

We’re updating as soon as we can, share what you learn in comments below…

Update: All appears to be as good as advertised – we have an official review and some of our user impressions:

The update includes:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls;
• Significantly better battery life for most users;
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes;
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts;
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications;
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications;
• Improved performance in text messaging;
• Faster loading and searching of contacts;
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display;
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages;
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts;
• Genius playlist creation;

We don’t know just yet if the patch addresses a bug which impacted some users who saw their applications fail and their iPod library content become unavailable.

Some iTunes users in the US are complaining of a problem when downloading High Definition (HD) films or TV shows from Apple’s service.

What’s meant to occur is that customers purchasing film or TV content in HD will automatically also gain a standard definition version, which they can carry around and play on their iPhone or iPod.

But, as described on an Apple support forum, the implementation appears a little buggy, with some users complaining that after waiting for a significant length of time for the HD version of the title to download, the badly-named SD version then overwrites the higher-resolution video.

"The problem is in the file’s name. iTunes typically adds a 1 (or 2,3,etc) to the end of a file if there is already a file with the same name in current folder. For the HD episodes that weren’t overwritten, they have an additional number at the end. I watched an HD file appear and then disappear as the SD version was download," one poster explains.

Conventionally, Apple’s OS adds a sequential number when duplicate files are found, though this doesn’t always occur – a user can elect to overwrite the file. In this case, the film or TV shows are coming down the pipe with the same file name – though this problem is intermittent.

When the standard version of the download starts it overwrites the HD version because they use the same file name. A user explains: "If you pause the standard version so that it doesn’t start downloading when the HD version finishes. Then exit iTunes and reopen it. When you start downloading the standard version iTunes renames the standard version with a number 2 at the end so it doesn’t overwrite the HD version."

Other users say that allowing ‘simultaneous downloads’ through iTunes addresses the problem.

Via: Inquirer

Pangea Software has launched a sale on the Apple App Store, offering all its titles at a discount price – but only for a while.

The company has reduced the price of all five of its iPhone titles, which include Enigmo, Cro-Mag Rally, Billy Frontier, Beer Bounce and Pangea VR Pro. The sale prices appear to be available on both the UK and the US stores.

Brian Greenstone from the company confirmed plans to port its OS X games to the iPhone at WWDC earlier this year, since when both Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally have won high ratings and steady downloads from users at Apple’s iPhone application store. 

• Enigmo: $4.99, down from $9.99

• Cro-Mag Ralley: $1.99, down from $5.99

• Billy Frontier: $3.99, down from $5.99

• Beer Bounce: $1.99, down from $2.99

• Pangea VR Pro: $14.99, down from $19.99

I just watched Microsoft’s new advertisement, and it beat the old one big time. I love Seinfeld, and I actually enjoyed this ad a bunch more. The best line, when Gates asks Seinfeld why their living a normal life with a family: “You’re living in some kind of moonhouse hovering over Seatle like the mothership, I have so many cars, I get stuck in my own traffic! We need to connect with real people!”

I feel that this ad beats all of Apple’s recent Get A Mac ads in humor: in effectiveness, Apple’s ads win, because they are about selling computers, but I really enjoyed this, and thought it was a great, funny advertisement. I hope it gets talked positively about, so that we can see more ads like this.

You can view it in high quality on Microsoft’s website here.

For the record, I couldn’t stand the last ad. 

  Okay, so we’ve all seen the new iPods and agree they rock.  Just one little question.  Why does Apple make us compromise every time?  I love the new "Shake to Shuffle" feature, but will we see it in the iPod Classic?  I know it’s "Classic" but when will we see something new in the technology?  The thing I hate: I want tons of space, but tons of cool features.  The iPod Nano won’t hold my entire library, but you can do some pretty cool stuff with it.  When will we see an accelerometer in the massive iPod?  What will I do if I want to play cool games that require an accelerometer? Complain. That’s the answer. Complaining works.  One more thing….Color.  When will we see more color options for the iPod Classic and Touch?  I think that’s one of the major reasons people buy the iPod Nano.  What’s your say?  Leave a comment and tell me why you would buy a scrawny little iPod Nano and not an iPod Classic. 

And If 100 people read this, I should see 100 comments so don’t just leave and not comment!!! 

That goes for YOU!!!

Apple, hoping to get its millions of iTunes users into the HD TV show  format is offering up a free selection of HD content for iTunes 8 users.  C|Net put together a helpful list for us:

• 30 Rock
• Battlestar Galactica
• Eureka
• Heroes
• In Plain Sight
• Lipstick Jungle
• Monk
• The Office
• Psych
• Life
• The Rachel Zoe Project
• Top Design

Oh, and when we say "us", we mean US users….sorry…

Why are you still reading this?  Go grab them before they are taken down!

Visit http://www.tonchidot.com/ for more information…

iFixit just found a huge little omission from Apple’s Let’s Rock event.  The iPod touch v.2 has a Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth chip.  

This chip didn’t just fall into the device – there are plenty of stand alone 802.11 chips on the market.  While it is thought that this chip might be used for Nike+ which  uses a special ANT PAN, it has capabilities to do so much more.  It looks like Apple could have some plans for Bluetooth on the touch.  What do you think this means for the future of the iPod touch?  Will you be able to tether to another phone?  Will Apple even open it up for use?  How about wireless syncing? 

Bonus: Oh, yeah the chip also supports an FM radio reciever.  My oh my!

From iFixit:

• This particular bluetooth chipset supports BT2.1+EDR. No word yet on whether the one Apple included supports A2DP, which would enable stereo headphones.

• Part numbers: BCM4325GKWBG CD0825 B76332 P40 SF

via Giz

David Nunn has a nice little op ed piece today in Mobile Magazine which lays out Apple’s high level strategy going into the mobile handset arena.  The numbers he quotes are quite impressive.

The first sales figures obtained by Mobile for the 3G iPhone reveal that Apple is on course to breeze by this milestone. Its sales have consistently hovered at around 4-7% of the market. What is amazing about this feat is that it has been achieved on the back of a single product, sold at a premium price on terms dictated by the manufacturer. In contrast, the likes of LG climbed up through the second division of handset manufacturers by cheap 3G handsets to the whim of operators (namely 3). It then graduated to the top tier by turning cartwheels to produce one eye-catching designer product after another.

But the interesting thing is the comparison between Apple and out-matched military commanders who see a weakeness and exploit it.

Great military commanders in history, such as Nelson or Napoleon, were masters at winning battles against larger enemies. Their technique was to mass small forces at a single point where the enemy was weak, to create an overwhelming advantage that would force a breakthrough. That’s pretty much what the polo-neck brigade at Apple has achieved.

Good analagy except it is the ‘mock turtle neck brigade’.