Iphone Updates

Just as we’re expecting it to be in the US and UK, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have both suggested a 3G iPhone will remain exclusive to their network. Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier told Reuters that a future iPhone “will remain an exclusive contract in France.”…

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Reviews

As we noted yesterday, Napster has now rolled out the world’s largest DRM-free MP3 store. In the spirit of the Amazon MP3 review we ran last year, I thought I would take Napster for a spin to see how the service works from a Mac-user’s perspective.

The first thing to note is that this is a download service. While Napster continues to run its subscription-based service (with downloads limited to Windows computers with Microsoft DRM), you do not need a subscription to purchase MP3s from the Napster Store (though you need an account, of course). Once downloaded the files are just straight 256kbps MP3s that should play without problem on any of a variety of devices. With that in mind, let’s have a look at the Napster experience.

Continue reading TUAW Review: Napster MP3 store

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Multimedia, Software

Yes, that is the title. Penny Arcade’s game has been released, and is now available for sale or demo over on the Greenhouse site. What’s perhaps most amazing about this game is that on Tuesday, developers Hothead Games released the thing simultaneously on as many platforms as they could, including PC, OS X, Linux, and even the Xbox Live Arcade. That in itself is almost admirable enough to pick it up on principle alone.

But is it any good? Reviews have been middling, though word on the street says that if you’re a fan of the webcomic, you’ll probably enjoy the game. Jerry Holkins, writer of both the comic and the game, spoke with our sister site Joystiq about the grueling process of putting it together, and gameplay is basically a mix of old-school RPG, Call of Cthulu, and Sam & Max. Play, in other words, at your own risk.

Or just try the demo. The game itself is only $20, but it’s the first of four episodes, all priced that way, so it might be pretty costly by the end. Still, especially if you’re a Penny Arcade fan, it’s worth a look. And any developer that goes multi-platform including OS X on day one, complete with demos, gets a TUAW salute from us.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Software

Here’s a nice application for people who work by the hour … and must track those hours themselves. Timepost works very simply – just click the start button as you begin working and the pause button when you’re done.

Now for the good part. Timepost integrates with Basecamp, Freshbooks, Blinksale, FogBugz, Harvest and Tick. Just enable the API access for each service in your account settings and you’ll be able to browse all of your open projects. Select the one you’re working on from the drop down menu and when you’re finished just click the “Post” button. Your hours will be added to the project.

Timepost requires Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later and a single license will cost you $49US.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The 3G iPhone will be fast, especially on overseas networks where 7.2mbps HSDPA is common. Unfortunately for us in the U.S AT&T has no HSDPA faster than 3.6mbps, but 7.2mbps HSDPA is on their to do list. HSPA in its current form is tops out at 14.4mbps/5.76mbps up/down respectively. Furthermore, the highest speed most devices support is 7.2mbps.

HSPA+, also known as HSPA Evolution, or HSPA Evolved, is set to increase speeds significantly. It supports 42mbps/22mbps up/down respectively. To my knowledge, there are currently no HSPA+ devices on the market. Unless one comes out in the next 17 days, then it looks like if this did turn out to be true, then the 3G iPhone would be the first HSPA+ device on the market.

For us, this would not do any good for quite a while. Telstra, down in Australia, might be able to take advantage of it though. For them, HSDPA is already at 14.4mbps, and it is rumored that by the time Christmas rolls around this year, that Telstra will have upgraded their network to HSPA+.

“We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Xmas this phone will be capable of 42mbs which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world ” -Telstra

[Via Engadget Mobile]

“There was no other choice,” says Jeremy Munce of the decision to edit “The Tracey Fragments” using Final Cut Pro. Adds director Bruce McDonald: “Whatever we thought to do with Final Cut Pro, we could do,” he says. “In a way, the film looks like it does because of its radical fluidity. We could not have achieved our vision without it.”

The rumour that Telstra will get the iPhone in Australia has been around for a while now, but now a senior executive at the telco has reportedly claimed the iPhone will be available on their network as soon as it’s released. What’s exciting, for Aussies at least, is that by Christmas, an iPhone running on Telstra’s Next G HSDPA network could be capable of speeds up to 42Mbps. Yes — “up to” — but still an impressive target, and faster than many fixed-line broadband offerings…

There’s nothing like a couple of job adverts on Apple’s web site to spark speculation about future iPhone development. The latest jobs on offer are for a “Product Design Engineer – iPhone” and “Sr. RF System Engineer”…

MobileAge has announced two new games for the iPhone coming soon: Blackjack 21 and touchTile Mahjong…

How do business owners use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote? In the free online “iWork for Business” seminar, Rebecca Breitenkamp, CFO of Intezyne Technologies, tells Apple product manager Mike Greenberg how her biotechnology startup uses iWork ’08 to produce financial projections, annual reports, research updates, and many other documents. Watch it online, or download the video and watch it on your iPod.

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air

Are you looking for a tiny portable hard drive for doing Time Machine backups on the road? I do a lot of traveling with my MacBook Air and don’t often get a chance to back it up to the 1 TB monster at home. Although there are several other diminutive hard drives on the market, when I saw the My Passport Studio line of portable drives announced today by Western Digital, I ordered one. After all, the case matches my AirBook!

Available in 160 ($129.99), 250 ($189.99), and 320 GB ($219.99) flavors, My Passport Studio drives are about 3.2″ x 5.0″ x .71″ (81mm x 127 mm x 18 mm) in size and weigh a featherweight 6.4 ounces (.18 kg). The drives are bus powered — USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 — so there’s no need to tote a power brick when you’re traveling. They’re formatted as HFS+ Journaled, requiring Mac OS X 10.4.11+ or 10.5.2+.

The drives are available from Western Digital, and through a variety of online and brick-and-mortar stores. The 250 and 320 GB drives are showing back-order status.

Thanks to Denver pal Mike for the phone call tip this morning!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, OS, Peripherals, Leopard

Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music (one of my favorite music-making blogs, by the by) has a post rounding up a lot of the issues OS 10.5.2 seems to be having with various drivers for audio interfaces, including those manufactured by Digidesign (aka the Pro Tools folks) and its subsidiary M-Audio. This is a pretty big problem, as Digidesign and M-Audio are two of the most popular manufacturers of prosumer/professional audio interfaces. Peter’s post links to apologies and explanations from the manufacturers as well.

According to Dave Lebolt, general manager at Digidesign, the 10.5.2 upgrade may have actually broken fixes that appeared in 10.5.1. And Kirn goes as far to say that he “certainly can’t recommend Leopard in its current state,” at least for making music, which is why I haven’t upgraded from TIger myself.

Does this affect you if you’re not a music geek? Probably not. But when your psycho microhouse-obsessed beatmaking roommate starts swearing and kicking his MacBook and ProTools rig around in the middle of the night, at least you’ll know what the fuss is all about.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Deals, iPhone

Heads up boys and girls! Cheap refurbs are back at AT&T. These sell out really really fast. Pick up a 16 GB iPhone for just $349 or an 8GB for only $249. Free shipping and a (possible) full one year warranty–although last time this deal ran people were getting mixed results on that end. (Be sure to check out our previous post about checking your warranty coverage).

Yes, this is first generation. Yes, this is refurb. But why not buy yourself some time to let the 3G iPhone prices drop? The 1st gen iPhones will remain firmware compatible with any new Apple releases for a long time to come.

Thanks, Dan Parmelee

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Geo tagging is a feature that is included on many higher end devices, especially Nokia’s devices, and is becoming increasingly popular on non smart devices. The iPhone does not have the ability to geo tag pictures. not yet at least. Geo tagging is when a device writes its current position to the meta data of an image when the device saves the image to memory.

The feature was discovered in a new build of the 2.0 firmware, which has been dubbed 5A292g. This is all fine and dandy for GPS enabled handsets like the new iPhone that will be released soon, but what about for the GPS challenged iPhone we know today? The simple answer is yes it will work. These screen shots are not from a 3G iPhone, as no one has stepped forward as having one.

The complicated answer, is kind of. The iPhone uses cell site triangulation to achieve its location awareness. While it is not as precise as GPS, it usually precise enough for most uses. Geo tagging is among those features that will work for the purpose of it. The set back is not cell sites, no location services. Just don’t leave the safety of the network, you never do anyway, right?

[Via AppleInsider]

Korea and Japan use strictly W-CDMA for cellular networks. Being a GSM device with no 3G, the iPhone lacks W-CDMA, and is therefore not Pacific Rim friendly. Of course this is all about to change soon, when Apple launches the long awaited, rumor surrounded, now holy grail of a device 3G iPhone. It is assumed to be launched at WWDC of course.

According to one rumor, the possibility of the iPhone making its way to these two countries is very real. It seems as if NTT DoCoMo and Korea Free Telecom will be the lucky carriers to get the new 3G iPhone, and apparently it will be an exclusive. It is not clear if there will be any sort of subsidies or if the revenue sharing agreement will come into play.

There is only one problem for Apple in these countries though. Korea and Japan have much more advanced handsets and networks, so the question remains as to whether or not the device will sell well in these countries. Though there will most likely be plenty of buyers, Apple might want to make the deal a little juicer, I don’t know maybe subsidies could be a good thing for them.

[Via Apple 2.0 Fortune Blog]

After testing it on a trip to Europe, technology editor David Schloss (pdn.com) found MacBook Air an “incredibly powerful computer in the world’s cutest package.” He “was really impressed with the glossy screen,” proclaims the keyboard “the best I’ve ever used, period,” and calls its real-world performance “naturally perfect.” He also touts its performance browsing and editing images in Aperture.

Filed under: iTS, Internet

Macworld is reporting that phishers are using the iTunes Store as a way to get personal information, using emails similar to those that purport to be from banks or auction sites.

Andrew Lochart, from security company Proofpoint, Inc., says the emails indicate that users must correct a problem with their iTunes account. The email links to a phony web page asking for the user’s credit card number, social security number, and mother’s maiden name.

In Macworld’s interview, Lochart suggested that iTunes was chosen as an attack method not only because of its popularity, but also because of a young user base that shows “a certain level of trust or openness when their post their name and age and school on MySpace.”

Have you received one of these emails? Let us know!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Apple TV

When I was a lad in Pennsylvania, renting a movie meant driving to Scranton Video (this is pre-Blockbuster, boys and girls) and crossing your fingers in hopes that something you actually want to watch will be among the four dozen VHS tapes they had in stock. Of course, the previous customer didn’t rewind the tape before returning it.

A few years later, Blockbuster provided a much larger collection of unwound movies I didn’t want to see. Eventually, Netflix took the inconvenient travel out of the equation (except for us small-town folk with PO Boxes) by sending movies through the mail. And there was much rejoicing.

Today, services like On Demand and Apple TV have eliminated the taxing walk to your mailbox by delivering movies directly to your television. Customers can rent, download and watch a hit movie faster than you can say “sedentary lifestyle.” And Netflix wants a piece of the (in)action.

Neflix and Roku have produced the Netflix Player, a $99US set top box that allows Netflix customers to stream any of the 10,000 available movies and TV shows. It connects via HDMI, composite, or component, and allows users to browse the library and make selections with the remote.

At one hundred bucks, it’s less expensive than an Apple TV, but it also does a lot less — no iTunes or iPhoto synchronization, current trailers, etc. It’s not a real threat to the Apple TV, but evidence that the set top box is here to say.

[Via AppleInsider]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: iTS, Features, Deals

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won’t be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don’t forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Details and country-by-country listings follow after the jump.

Continue reading iTunes: Free Tuesday

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

“Being perfect out of the box is a tall order,” points out Nicole Price Fasig (pcmag.com), but the new 15-inch MacBook Pro met her high expectations. In fact, she found it “a stellar system from the start.” Naming it “our new Editors’ Choice,” she gave it a 4.5 star rating (out of five).

Windows users have practically been given the cold shoulder when it comes to Pwning their iPhone. The WinPwn project launched to try and help out, by porting the Pwnage tool to Windows, which up until now has been a Mac only affair. The beta for WinPwn launched last month, with a final version promised in the next few days.

The promise came about a month late, but it is finally here now. Not only is it here, but it packs a large number of improvements over the beta that we saw last month. The software is totally free, and allows you to take control of your device. Features that it has allows you to load custom ROMs and change out the boot logo etc.

The new version of the tool is available now. You can get it from WinPwn.com. The software does have the potential to brick your device, so please if you do not know what you are doing, read up on the tool, or just avoid using it.

[Via iPhone Alley]

OK, maybe the title’s a little strong, but anyone who wants to put a Vista overlay onto their iPhone surely needs their head examining. Why oh why would you want to replace the slick gorgeousness of the iPhone’s graphical interface with colouring and icons that look like they’ve been vomited up by a cat is beyond me…

From “Babies by Design” to “San Diego Opera Talk” to “Health Matters,” the University of California Television delivers a wealth of highly informative programming to iTunes U. Explore the hundreds of audio and video podcasts you can enjoy on your Mac or PC or take with you on an iPod or iPhone.

Last year, just three and already competing at the world-class level, DARwin wowed crowds with his strength and on-field acrobatics. The youngster plays soccer for TEAM SPRInt, the first US team to qualify for the RoboCup, a global competition where soccer-playing robots vie for the world title. And, with the help of their Macs, the Virginia Tech team plans to send DARwin back to the 2008 RoboCup in China.

Simiotica has announced its aMaze! game, which simulates the classic Labyrinth puzzle where players have to guide a ball through the maze, is available for the iPhone. Using the inbuilt accelerometer, the game realistically recreates the puzzle, offering up…

Eddie Izzard’s unique brand of humour has been enhanced with the use of an iPhone. According to reports, he brings an iPhone to his current “Stripped” tour, in order to look up topics of interest live on stage and then apply his own brand of humour to the results…

Napster has finally shed the Digital Rights Management shackles from its six-million strong collection of music tracks, meaning that it can now be used on an iPhone or iPod…

The iPhone is an excellent target for gaming. The device’s glorious multi touch display is very intuitive for gaming, and the device has a relatively beefy internal specification sheet. Gaming and the iPhone are no strangers, and that is putting it mildly. Until now though, there have been no real 3D games. Kingdom Lores is out now, and it the first of its kind.

The game is being developed by Marco Giorgini by using a custom OpenGL rendering engine. This provides excellent rendering of the graphics, and as seen above, the iPhone does a great job. The game can be played in portrait mode, as seen here. Or in landscape, which will provide a first person view of the game play. The object of the game is to explore territories and slay dragons.

The game is not available in Installer just yet. You can get the game though, and manually load it onto your device. It can be had here. The game seems somewhat complete, and hopefully will be made available very soon.

[Via IntoMobile]

Perhaps it’s just an excuse for Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz to create another funky piece of artwork, but apparently “someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch” (not just close; not even very close; but very, very close) has personally told Jesus that the 3G iPhone will launch at this year’s WWDC in June, and be released across the nations very soon after. Interestingly Gizmodo has backtracked on its initial thought that the 3G iPhone would be launched at the end of 2008, though that’s the first time I’ve heard of that concept anyway…

Filed under: Software, Beta Beat

Your response to last week’s post about Evernote was amazing, with over 250 people requesting beta invitations and jamming my email inbox. Evernote has followed up with a 24-hour open invitation just for TUAW readers. There’s also a new 1.1.0a build of the beta that resolves a crashing bug.

Hurry over to this link:

http://www.evernote.com/Registration.action?code=tu4w7

before 2 PM ET on May 20th to get your very own invitation!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Apple Financial

In the “premium” computer market — at least, for machines sold in brick and mortar stores — Apple holds its own as number one. For the first quarter of this year, Macs accounted for 66 percent of computers that retailed for over $1,000, according to eWeek.

That’s not all: 70 percent of desktops sold at the same price point (or higher) are made by Apple too.

Even though sales at physical stores represent only a fraction of the overall computer market, what’s most impressive for this stat is the year-over-year growth. Apple had 18 percent of the premium market in January 2006. That grew to 57 percent in September 2007, and just six months later rose to 66 percent. In the same eWeek article, Joe Wilcox quotes NPD’s Stephen Baker as saying “Windows notebooks had ‘zero percent’ growth year over year [and] Apple notebooks had ’50 to 60 percent growth.’”

Of course, overall, Apple makes 14 percent of computers sold at retail. Compare that to Apple’s nadir in the late 90s of around two percent, and you can see how the changes Apple made to its distribution and retail strategy over the last decade have really paid off.

[via Apple 2.0]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Peripherals, Odds and ends

Here’s my daily dilemma. Between work and family, we own 6 iPods (this includes our two iPhones), each of which has its unique playlists, podcast subscriptions and so forth. We also have a printer and scanner — both used regularly, and an EyeTV tuner, again critical. We have an external microphone connector for Skyping and no fewer than three external disks. One is used for Time Machine, one for EyeTV recordings, one for my G4 backups.

My G4, with its ten built-in USB ports and connection to a single powered USB 4-port hub, is on the fast-past to dying. It’s not right on the edge yet but all the signs are there. It’s time to move on. But what is going to replace that G4 with its surfeit of USB ports?

Continue reading My USB dilemma, can you help?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

According to one source claiming to have been tipped by sources close to the 3G iPhone, the device will in fact be announced on June 9th at WWDC. Then, immediately after, the device is expected to be unleashed to the waiting masses. The launch will be a worldwide launch, as opposed to the original launch, where it started in the U.S. and made its way to other countries later.

According to the article it will not take long, as the device will be available in Spain as early as June 18th. The launch schedule is very interesting, starting with a single Apple Store, and a single Telefonica store. Then within 24 hours the device will make country wide launch. According to the article, this is the same launch scheme that will be used all across Europe.

According to this articles “reliable sources” the device will not be sold at fixed price points in Europe. This means basically carriers are free to sell the device at whatever price they feel. This means that if we are lucky, then the new iPhone will indeed carry a subsidy. This is especially necessary in Europe, where the carriers are ultra competitive with one another.

[Via Gizmodo]

Many 3G devices on many carriers can download music and such over the air, but for EDGE devices like the iPhone this is a little less practical. Now there are over the air downloads via the iTunes Store for the iPhone, but you must be in a WiFi hot spot to take advantage of the service. With the addition of 3G to the new iPhone though, over the air downloads will be much more feasible.

That’s because the addition of 3G will make the device exponentially faster when transferring data. Also, 3G will increase call quality. An article in the New York Time suggests that Apple is in talks with major record labels about the service. It seems all is not well in the negotiations though, as the labels are all wanting more than 70 cents per song.

According to the article Apple is planning a big launch in June. Apple also is looking to add more songs to its listing of ring tones. Apple is also looking to bring call tones to the iPhone, which may be worth even more than a traditional ring tone according to the report. It is assumed if a deal is struck it will be introduced at Apple’s WWDC event on June 9th.

[Via AppleInsider]

According to Gizmodo, the iPhone 3G (version 2) will be launch at the WWDC by Steve Jobs himself on the 9th of June 2008.

Well, we’ll see but it’s in line with previous previsions…

Tags:3G gizmodo iphone jobs steve WWDC3G, gizmodo, iphone, jobs, steve, WWDC

Calling it “one of my favorite wireless gadgets since its introduction,” Bob Levitus (Houston Chronicle) praises the latest version of AirPort Express, which supports fast 802.11n Wi-Fi. “Setting up your AirPort Express to act as a wireless base station or remote audio receiver or to share a printer couldn’t be easier,” he says. “I’ve taken it on the road and all over my house, and it has never failed to perform perfectly.”

Sybase could soon release software to provide secure email to iPhone users, according to John Chen, speaking at the recent Reuters technology summit, claiming it would be “secure enterprise grade” and would let “the IT guys manage it”…

A New York Times article suggests that Apple may try to expand its mobile music offerings, and its relationships with music labels, as it rolls out the next generation iPhone, expected to have 3G. Currently, iPhone users can purchase tracks from iTunes while using the Internet via Wi-Fi, but can’t do the same over the cellular network. A 3G network, with a much faster connection speed, could allow that function.

Filed under: Features, TUAW Business, Weekend Review

It’s the weekend. W00t! Time to kick back, relax and read the latest installment of TUAW’s best of the week, where we gather up our favorite posts for your easy clicking enjoyment.

	Data-only iPhone plan for $20/month Erica shows you how to get an iPhone with unlimited data plan for only $20 per month.
	“iPhone Black” appears on AT&T ordering site As if AT&T doesn’t make mistakes, the “black” color iPhone was speculated all over the blogosphere this past week due to an AT&T “mistake.”
	Jobs WWDC keynote all but confirmed Well, if you thought Steve Jobs had been replaced by Steve Ballmer for the upcoming WWDC, then you are saddly mistaken, because Jobs is back for yet another WWDC. In addition, WWDC 08 also sold out earlier this week.
	Apple gets trademark for iPod shape Does this seem a little odd to anyone else? I mean, I’ve seen several bars of soap that look exactly like the shape of an iPod.
	VBA to return in next version of Microsoft Office; SP1 released We never thought we would miss VBA until Microsoft released Office 2008 for Mac. Oh yeah, we missed it, but now it’s back.
	$45 credit for Canadian iPod owners Apple announced this past week that Canadians would get a $45 credit for batteries in first, second, or third gen iPods bought before June 24th, 2004.
	iTunes: Free Tuesday Get some free tunes.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Internet Tools, Developer

Over at the Official Google Mac blog they’ve announced the release of App Engine Launcher for Mac OS X. Basically, its a Mac-native project manager for creating web applications to run on Google App Engine, which allows third-party developers to write web applications that run on Google’s infrastructure. The Launcher makes it a matter of a couple of clicks to create and (when finished) deploy projects to Google. In the words of author John Grabowski, “with the Launcher, you can focus on your app instead of the tools.”

The App Engine Launcher is available for download with the Google App Engine SDK at Google Code.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

Leech is a download manager from Many Tricks that seems to take a “less is more” approach to controlling downloads. With the newly released version 1.1 it integrates with Safari, Camino, and OmniWeb via a SIMBL plugin (or, as some insist, hack), allowing it to take over downloads from any of those browsers. In addition to pausing and resuming downloads, Leech also features a rule based system that allows you to control what happens to files once they’re downloaded, filing them to different folders or opening them in different applications according to file type. It also features drag and drop of URLs onto its Dock icon, Keychain integration, and a full searchable history menu.

Leech is €9.95 (~$15) and a demo is available. Registered users of other download managers can get a 30% off coupon.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

If you have ever looked down at that sleek iPhone or iPod Touch in your pocket and thought “wow, this thing needs a stylus”, then Brightonnet’s new BI-IPEN might just be for you. As capacitive touch devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch can not use a stylus. They need to feel the small electric charge from your fingertip, which plastic or metal can not traditionally provide.

The BI-IPEN is solving that using a special type of conductive resin on the bottom of the pen. The device will allow you to touch and drag, but unless you are going to set the device down and use two of these bad boys, then no multi touch. It is available in both black and silver, but I could not find a price for the device, or if it is even shipping yet.

[Via Akihabara News]

Well we may have just found the first 3G iPhone case. According to the manufacturer, this case if for the 3G iPhone, and there is also one for the normal iPhone. The case seems to be called ELECTRAonBLACK, which no doubt refers to the wild colors of the case. It could be a manufacturer looking for attention, but then again, it could be legitimate.

As you can see, the case clearly fits the rumored specifications.  The design of the case fits the curved back rumor, it also fits the description of the bottom of the device. The device in the case is very clearly a stock photo of the current iPhone. That would be expected considering the device is not even out to the public yet.

It is not clear when the case will be made available. Logic would suggest as soon as the 3G iPhone comes out, but you never know. Since the device in the photo is the original iPhone, we do not get to know anything new about the 3G iPhone.

When photo journalist John McDermott covers a World Cup Soccer event, he can capture more than 1,000 images a day. And since his editor needs his best shots the very same day, McDermott needs to edit his photos even more quickly than he took them. Watch the video now playing on the Aperture site and find out how Aperture helps McDermott make his final selects quickly, easily, and enjoyably.

Have you ever wanted to mark up a PDF, adding website links, including comments, or identifying copy to revise or delete? If you’re using Mac OS X Leopard, you have all the tools you need to annotate PDFs. You’ll find them in Preview, and the latest Quick Tip of the Week demonstrates how you can take advantage of them.

Apple has won “two highly-coveted black pencils at the prestigious D&AD Awards, for the design of the iMac and the iPhone,” reports Mark Sweney (guardian.co.uk). Though, according to Cheney, “a black pencil is notoriously difficult to achieve,” Apple “has won a total of six black pencils since 1999,” making “the US technology company the most successful in the 45-year history of the event.”

Google has always been a major player when it comes to the iPhone. The iPhone came loaded with YouTube, Google Maps, and a extremely simple method to sync up your Gmail account with your iPhone. Upon launch, many of Google’s web applications were ported over for use with the iPhone’s mobile Safari browser.

According to the Vice President of Google’s Engineering department, Google will be providing applications for the iPhone from day one of the release of iPhone firmware 2.0, and will make them available in the App Store. Most already assumed this would be the case. Google says that the iPhone has changed the way people will look at mobile web browsing.

That’s because according to Google, all mobile browsers are different. There are so many platforms, and so few use the same mobile browser. Google thinks that with how successful WebKit based browsers like mobile Safari, and the browser found on some Nokia devices, most manufacturers will adopt a WebKit based solution in the future as well. Google made it known that despite bringing native applications to the iPhone, they will still maintain and develop web based applications, as they do know.

[Via MacWorld]

Orange has announced that it has signed a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in a number of new countries throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The ten countries specifically named in Orange’s short statement are Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland. Additionally, “African markets” will be sold to, though which ones isn’t clear…

The community city guide Qype, which allows users to browse information and reviews about a large number of cities throughout Europe, has announced a native iPhone version utilising the handset’s interface and with all the original features and functions of Qype in place…

Filed under: iPod Family, Software, iPhone

Here’s an iPhone app with some potential. Greg Elliot of Poke has released SynchStep, an app for iPhones and iPod touches that chooses songs based on your walking pace. The project began before the iPhone, conceived as a self-contained MP3 player with the necessary hardware. Upon the advent of the accelerometer-toting iPhone/touch, it became more feasible to bring the idea to the masses.

The app has a simple, good-looking interface. I couldn’t get it to work very well, though, after about 20 minutes of building and analyzing playlists followed by many carefully paced steps. Quite a few people witnessed me walking quickly by, only to see me pass a while later at a much slower pace, repeated ad nauseum nauseam with an increasingly frustrated look on my face.

I love the concept, though. I want it to work and I’m hoping I’m just doing something wrong. Maybe you should give it a try. I’ve always wanted a real-time, personal soundtrack. Coincidentally, the previous name for the project was PersonalSoundtrack, which I mention only because I like the former moniker slightly better for its more intimate connotations. Now, back to walking around like I’m in a Monty Python sketch.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments