Technomaly » iphone

Apple iPhone 4 Should Be Your First Choice

sarin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:32:19 +0000

The communication masterpiece, iPhone 4 has been release by Apple on June 7, 2010. It promises to be one of the best and robust iPhone so far. It is 9.7 inch in thickness, making it at least 25% thinner than the previous iPhone 3GS and one of the sleekest smart phone models available. IT is jam packed with best in class resolution, on-screen and high definition dual camera system. With iPhone 4 one can do more in less time and in an effective manner on the go in a seamless manner all the time. The frontal camera is VGA based while the backlit LED display cam is 5MP. Once can get to record and edit HD videos on the best in class communication master piece, iPhone 4. On the price front too, iPhone 4 seems to have made it look decent. It is available in two models – 16GB and 32 GB. The 16 GB model is available for $199 while the 32GB model can be grabbed for in $299. Over all iPhone 4 promises to be one of the best smart phones that people have waited for so long,

The video conferencing and calling facility is perhaps the biggest USP of iPhone 4. With a single tap of a button, users can place call amongst each other. The frontal camera comes to use while the video calls are under way. This can provide best in class opportunity for one and all to communicate with their teams remotely and at the same time share the content in the real time. Apple has referred this feature as Face Time. One can benefit from video calling facility without any download of third party software. It has been anticipated that service providers such as Skype would take a hit from this competitive landscape offered by Apple to its users. It can help connecting the world in a better manner. For instance, a parent who is travelling abroad can get to view the party that is being held in their home for their child’s birthday. Vivid pictures and high quality of video can be shared and viewed by one and all over their best in class iPhone 4 in just about no time. The on screen resolution is 960X640 which is double than that of iPhone 3GS which was at 490X320. iPhone 4 has been packaged with better and longer battery life. As a result video calling and conferencing features can be exploited in a far better manner and for longer durations on the go.

From a customers, point of view they could actually end up saving substantially through video calling, Face Time feature of iPhone 4. The world would converge for those who have the power of iPhone 4 on the go. There are endless exploration possibilities through iPhone 4. One can easily benefit from video calling facility of iPhone 4 in a competitive and yet effective manner. iPhone 4’s video calling facility would be brisk and fast on 3G or 2G network on the go.

Android Phones Outsell iPhone in Q1

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:45:12 +0000

The end of Apple’s dominance of the mobile phone market is at hand! Okay, that’s overstating it by a long shot. But the analysts at NPD are reporting today that in Q1 Android-based phones captured 28 percent of the market, while the iPhone claimed 21 percent. Of course, there are several important caveats here. First, both Google’s Android phones and Apple’s iPhone were outsold by Blackberry-based phones, which grabbed 36 percent of the market. Second, there are multiple different Android phones (Droid, Nexus One, MyTouch, etc.) and only one iPhone, meaning that no individual Android phone is presenting a real threat to the iPhone. Third, a strong “Buy One Get One Free promotion” on phones like the Droid definitely helped with sales. So even though I recently joined the Android team, it’ll be a long time before we can declare victory over our rival Apple.

Source: Android Central

How To Make Calls From Your iPad

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:00:29 +0000

Well, the thing’s not even out for a week and already someone’s turned the thing into a giant iPhone.

If you’d like to make calls from your iPad, check out the Truphone app, which allows iPad users to make calls over VoiP. Calls are free to other Truphone, Skype or Google Talk users, and are $.05/minute over telephone lines (cheaper if you sign up for the monthly plan).

Why would you want to make calls from your iPad? Well, maybe your iPhone died because you tried to do two things at once with it. Maybe you like feeling like a very tiny man. Whatever your reasoning, just the very fact that you can do this is kinda cool.

Here’s video of a man using his iPad as a giant iPhone off TechCrunch:

First iPad Games Leak Online

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:16:27 +0000

Looking forward to the iPad? Apparently a number of iPhone game developers are. A number of “HD” or “XL” versions of existing iPhone/iPod games have been confirmed by the App Store. It’s safe to assume that these games will be merely higher-resolution versions of the games that will look better on the larger screen, but who cares? It’s news about an Apple product, so it’s clearly a big deal! Here’s a list of the games:

Ammoin HD
Azkend HD
Flight Control HD
Grind HD
HD Recovery
Labyrinth 2 HD
NBA Hotshot HD
Numba HD
Plants vs. Zombies HD
Sparkle HD
Worms HD

Looks like I’ll be buying Plants vs. Zombies for a third time.

Story and Image via CruchGear

Transfer Cash By Bumping iPhones

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:06:51 +0000

For months we’ve been reading stories of upcoming technology designed to turn your iPhone into a device to collect money – through credit card swipe readers, mostly. Today, PayPal’s jumped in on the action by releasing a new iPhone application that allows the transfer of money from one person to another via the bumping together of iPhones.

The app uses tech from Bump Technologies, which originally developed the software to transfer contact information between phones. It also comes with a feature to split a dinner check, including tax and tip, so everyone can transfer their cash to a single person who’d then pay the entire bill.

According to the New York Times, payments are free between PayPal accounts or banks, and fees vary if a credit card’s used. Given that PayPal’s motto is, “Give us 2% of everything you own,” I can see them making a ton of money off microtransactions here. In fact, mobile transactions with PayPal jumped from 24 million transactions in 2008 to an astounding 140 million transactions in 2009, so there’s definitely a market here.

Get bumpin!

Turn Your iPhone Into A Universal Remote With RedEye Mini

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:25 +0000

For the longest time I’ve wanted something like this – meet the RedEye Mini, a micro-sized dongle that plugs into your iPhone or iPod Touch through the headphone jack. It blasts IR signals directly at whatever device you’re looking to run – be it your DVD player or television or what have you – allowing you to control it from your phone, which will help you feel like a big man.

The coolest part? You can design your own button and macro layouts, meaning that instead of going powering on your DVD player and going through a DVD menu you can simply hit one button called “Play DVD.” If you want a button dedicated for “Cartoon Network,” you simply build it. Simple as that!

The RedEye Mini runs for about 50 bucks, and is cool as hell. Go out and buy eight of them, and then give me one, because I’m poor.

Source & Photo Source: Macworld

What The Hell Is “Chomp?”

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:00:50 +0000

Well, Chomp, you got my attention. I just read a headline marked, “Chomp surpasses 300,000 users,” which makes sense as the service is named Chomp, and Chomp is a cool name for something. But what the hell is Chomp?

Well, Chomp is an iPhone app that allows you to review other iPhone apps. Recursiveness aside, there’s a need for this, as the iTunes app store is a confusing, frustrating maze of content and wasted money. You can see what apps your friends recommend, or what the entire Chomp community thinks of an app.

App developers can also add a “Chomp Connect” button to their apps which allows users to chomp the app without even loading the program.

Has anyone reviewed Chomp on Chomp yet? Someone hurry, Chomp may at this point be unChomped!

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

Half Of Respondents In Study Report iPhone Addiction

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:14 +0000

A Stanford study has finally given of evidence of what we’ve always known deep down – people are seriously addicted to their iPhones.

The Stanford study involved 200 students, who were asked to rate their opinion of their iPhone usage on a scale from one to five, one being “not addicted” and five being “fully addicted.” 54% reported a four or higher.

That’s insane. To parse the data a little more, 10% of the respondents reported they were “fully addicted” – only 6% reported “no addiction.” 34% gave themselves a four.

41% of them also reported that losing their iPhones would be “a tragedy,” which only makes me want to slap those things the hell out of people’s hands.

Finally, 75% of respondents slept next to their iPhones – no word yet if they’ve knitted little pajamas for the damn things.

Source & Photo Source: Huffington Post

Netflix Streaming Coming to iPhone?

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:00:18 +0000

Tech companies often use online surveys to gauge interest in new features or products, and oftentimes these surveys lead to leaks of the proposed features. The most recent Netflix survey has leaked online, thanks to a very interesting potential feature that was mentioned: a new app that would bring Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature to iPhones. That’s a picture of the question at the left, and the full text is below in case you don’t like squinting.

For those of you who can’t be bothered to read multiple paragraphs, it comes down to this: You’d be able to watch movies and shows on your iPhone for no extra cost, provided that you have a Netflix account. However, you would only have access to the feature while connected to a Wi-Fi network, rendering the app pretty useless on a car trip and in many other situations. But even many planes have Wi-Fi now, so if this feature does come to pass I’d expect it to become pretty popular pretty quickly.

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

Image and story source: Hacking Netflix

New App Measures iPhone Radiation

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:38 +0000

Israeli startup Tawkon (get it? “talk on?”) has developed an iPhone app that claims to monitor the radiation emitted by your iPhone at any given point in time. The app, which is not a hilarious “joke app” designed to scare you about cancer, was apparently in development for 18 months, uses complex algorithms, and has some very scary graphics that essentially make the iPhone look like a cancer machine.

How exactly does the program claim to measure radiation? I’d explain it here, but it’s pretty complicated – here’s a list of the variables the program uses to judge radiation output:

distance from cellular towers
weather
proximity of the antenna from the body
the way in which you’re holding the iPhone
bluetooth
accelerometer
GPS
terrain
travel speed

I’ve got no idea if this thing works at all – and you may never find out, as the app’s been held up in iTunes App Store approval limbo for weeks. Still, if the program does come out, it’ll be in the $5-$10 dollar range. Additionally, android and blackberry versions are being developed, and the approval process for those stores is much less insane.

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

iPhone Books Now Outnumber Games

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:00:48 +0000

Here’s a fun fact for those who think reading is dead – the number of books available for the iPhone/iPod Touch has just exceeded the amount of games on the platform.

According to Mobclix, we’re currently at 26,569 books compared with 25,079 games, which is incredible for a system that displays books in a tiny, hard to read format without any Kindle style e-ink tricks.

Could this be the publishers preparing for an avalanche of iPad sales? Could be, but think about this – it’s much easier to get an existing book converted to digital form than it is to create an entire game from scratch.

10% of the current stock of iPhone/iPod books are 100% free, which is a bit of a surprise – you can download the collected works of Shakespeare, for example, for free. It weighs in at a slim 29 megabytes, and owning it is sure to make you look much smarter than you are.

Source & Photo Source: VentureBeat

Wi-Fi Stumblers Vanish From App Store

Asterios Kokkinos — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:18:27 +0000

Apple’s really gotta knock this off. Once again, we all wake up to a story of Apple arbitrarily removing apps from their iTunes App Store – some which have been sold for years – for vauge and arbitrary reasons.

Today’s victims? Wi-Fi stumbling programs like WiFiFoFum, WiFi-Where and yFy Network Finder, which are all designed to help you find open wireless networks. You know, the same thing your iPhone does when you ask it to.

The reason? “Using private frameworks to access wireless information.” What? Why not just ban the iPhone from accessing any unprotected network, then? Because that’d have an even better effect on halting access to unprotected wireless networks.

The days of the one-man iPhone app developer are quickly vanishing – if you can’t be sure that your app won’t be removed for no good reason, why even bother spending the hours and hours coding the program in the first place?

Source & Photo Source: Mashable

Final Fantasy: Now on the iPhone

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:01:48 +0000

And a great horde of moogles and chocobos rejoiced, as their franchise, straight and true, landed on that most chosen of platforms!

Final Fantasy – specifically, Final Fantasy’s I and II – have arrived for the iPhone, greedily sucking apart whatever was left of your free time. The twin franchise leaders – the second of which is the actual Japanese Final Fantasy II and not the NES version of Final Fantasy II (which was really Final Fantasy IV) – are available now in the iTunes store for $8.99 each, a mere pittance when compared to the hours of fun they’ll bring!

And are the graphics updated? As Sarah Palin would say, You Betcha! They look to be the same or similar versions as to the ones released for PSP a few years ago. Check out these sweet screenshots Mashable pulled, and tell me with a straight face that this isn’t the most exciting thing to happen to the iPhone since 3g.

Source & Photo Source: Mashable

5 Adult Apps Still In The iPhone App Store

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:43 +0000

I thought something like this might happen. Apple, which recently culled five thousand apps from the iPhone App Store due to “adult content” hasn’t touched the following five apps, according to a report from PCWorld. The apps are:

Adult Sex Life, an app which features sexual positions and a “little black book” of your sexual conquests
iKamasutra, which teaches you new sex positions
Loveline with Dr. Drew, a sexually explicit radio show
Playboy, which features no nudes, but plenty of risque photos
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010, which also features more cheesecake shots than should be allowed under the “new rules”

Why do these apps survive while others perish? I’ll bet dollars to donuts it’s because they’re polished, corporate apps, which don’t “feel” as gross as say, an app some guy made in his basement that lets you jiggle silhouetted breasts.

Still, there’s a ridiculous double standard at work here. Apple needs to do something to rectify this before they become thought of as a censorship-friendly company.

Source & Photo Source: PC World

2 iPhone Apps To Help Battle Climate Change Deniers

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:00:12 +0000

FastCompany, a website I fall in love with more and more each day, has created a list of two iPhone apps to help you spread the news that the planet is dying. Fun!

Their first recommendation is SkepticalScience, an app that provides you with common climate change denier talking points, and then gives you the appropriate response. So the next time someone’s like, “Where’s all the global warming? It’s snowing,” instead of punching them in the face, you can just bring up the fact that global weather patterns being altered is creating both record high and low temperatures. THEN you can punch them in the face.

SkepticalScience is my favorite app, but Jungfrau Climate Guide is pretty awesome too. It’s a scenic look at the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, telling you exactly how different it’s become due to global warming. Also, apparently you can aim it at any glacier and it’ll tell you how big that glacier is supposed to be. While me and my iPhone aren’t usually hanging around glaciers, it’s still pretty cool.

For more info on these apps, Google them, you lazy son of a gun. What am I, your internet maid?

Source & Photo Source: FastCompany

PMSBuddy Tracks Girlfriend’s Periods, You Jerk

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:00:55 +0000

TechCrunch just turned me on to an iPhone app that’s as unnecessary as it is hilarious. It’s called PMSBuddy, and is designed to tell you, a frightened male who’s uncomfortable with how the female body works, when he should hide in his room playing Fallout 3.

As someone who’s actually dated girls, let me tell you – PMS isn’t actually that big of a deal. It’s not a Jeckyl/Hyde transformation from reasonable intelligent partner to savage, chocolate popping monster. Girls are always crazy, regardless of what time of the month it happens to be.

That being said, if you really need an application to tell you when your girlfriend’s period is, well, here you go. It’s available as an iPhone app, a website and a facebook widget, and is used by approximately 100,000 terrified adult males worldwide.

Coming soon: FertilityBuddy, an app that allows you to determine when your significant other is ovulating. I’m not kidding. I wish I was kidding. I’m not kidding.

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

60,000 Android Handsets Shipped Daily

Asterios Kokkinos — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:00:04 +0000

Android invasion! In an announcement that serves to only further infuriate me, a man who cannot afford an android handset, Google’s just announced that 60,000 android enabled handsets are shipping daily. That’s 21.9 million handsets per year.

The idea of a standardized, universal operating system for phones has long been a dream of the mobile consumer. Google, answering our prayers, has filled in this gap with the introduction of the open source Android operating system. The advantages of a universal open source operating system are obvious: we can all use the same programs, and have those programs talk to each other.

For example, if this guy on a Nokia and this guy on an LG are both running Android, then they can both use gChat to talk to one another, or play the same games head to head, or transfer files between them without confusing operating system garbage.

As a point of reference, the iPhone moved 8.7 iPhones last quarter, so the yearly figure well dwarfs the android figure. Still, it’s pretty impressive for a system that’s only a little over two years old.

Source: MobileCrunch

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Nexus One Moves “Only” 80,000 Units

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:21 +0000

The same Flurry mobile analytics team who estimated that the Nexus One sold 20,000 units in its first week has come back with first month numbers – 80,000 units sold.

At first glance, these numbers aren’t great. The iPhone sold around 600,000 units in their first month, and the Droid recently moved about 525,000. But this is a false comparison – both the iPhone and the Droid plastered the entire country in billboards, commercials and those Steve Jobs black-turtleneck/blue jeans presentations that reporters find irresistible.

Compare this to the Nexus One, which had no marketing blitz, and is being sold directly to consumers through the Google website. Those are two things smartphone buyers have no experience with, so it’s no surprise the handsets aren’t flying off the shelves.

And sure, there’s been a rash of news stories about poor Nexus One customer service, or no AT&T 3G coverage, but you need to factor that against Google’s sterling reputation. We’re all on Gmail, a lot of us use Google Maps, and we do all our Googling with…Google.

My guess is that once people start to buy these phones and show them off to all their friends, more people will want them. It’ll be a slow burn, but it’s always a good idea to bet on Team Google.

Source: Mashable

Photo Source: ShowBizGalore

Wolfram Alpha Updates Their $50 iPhone App

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:00:11 +0000

For those who don’t remember, Wolfram Alpha is a website that answers user questions by directly computing the answer, instead of crawling the web for the answer like a traditional search engine. They sell an iPhone app of their website that sells for…get this…FIFTY DOLLARS.

Going to the Wolfram Alpha website? Free. Visiting the Wolfram Alpha website on my iPhone? Free. Downloading an app that replicates the website experience? FIFTY DOLLARS.

Well, to help users get more bang for their buck (or FIFTY BUCKS), Wolfram Alpha has released a new set of keyboards for their app that are actually quite cool. Alpha now comes with a “math” keyboard, a “symbol” keyboard, and a “Greek keyboard, all designed for nerds to enter their nerd math quieres in a more nerdly way.

Still, FIFTY DOLLARS? How about I give you geeks wedgies until you give it to me for free? Oh who am I kidding, these guys could probably use their fancy computer to calculate my weak spot with amazing accuracy.

My weak spot? Cake.

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

Apple Bans The Word “Android” From The App Store

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:00:55 +0000

“Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” could soon read, “Do ********s Dream Of Electric Sheep?”

At least in the App store. Last week new regulations came down the pipe from Apple banning the word “Android” from being mentioned in any app descriptions. The culprit that caused the ban was Tim Novikov, whose “Flash of Genius” SAT prep flashcard app mentioned its status as a “finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s [sic] Challenge.”

First off, you probably shouldn’t be using the word “developer’s” in that context if you’re creating SAT prep materials. But besides that, it seems like a fairly innocuous mention of a competitor.

“Competitor? SMASH THEM!” responded Steve Jobs. Actually, here’s the official statement:

“Providing future platform compatibility plans or other general platform references are not relevant in the context of the iPhone App Store.”

Other words banned from the app store? “Boobs” and “Booty.” The word “Android” sure is joining some illustrious company.

Source: Appscout

Guy To Create iPhone App Live, Over One Week

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:00:06 +0000

Starting Sunday, February 7th, iPhone app developer Sahil Lavingia will be creating an iPhone app live at www.oneweekapp.com. Lavingia, creator of the iPhone app’s Twizzle and Color Stream, says he’ll be posting “timelapses, screenshots, and other notes” in order to allow you to watch the work of an iPhone app, from scratch, happen.

What will the app be? We don’t know yet! Will he be able to accomplish his task? We don’t know that either! I do know this – I’d like it to be a game where iPhones punch Nexus One’s in the face for control of the galaxy.

That or some kind of really, really good calculator. Anyway, we at Technomaly will be following the progress of this guy’s app, and will alert you if it’s not incredibly boring.

Source: MacWorld

Finally: Skype Over iPhone 3G Clears Hurdles

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:00:09 +0000

Your dream of being able to call China over Skype using your iPhone just got a little closer to reality, with Skype’s announcement that a version of iPhone Skype that works over 3g will be coming “real soon now.” Here’s the leader of the Skype for iPhone team talking up the new development:

How soon “real soon now” is I’m not sure, but I am excited by the news. Apple’s blocked the ability to make VOIP calls from a 3G handset for a while now, with the not-so-secret intention of shielding AT&T from customers who’d try and drop their minute plan entirely, relying only on Skype for their incoming and outgoing calls. A small compromise was reached in that the current version of Skype for iPhone can call out over WiFi, but that means without a hotspot, you’d be beholden to AT&T’s outrageous rates.

With this new announcement – which Skype assures us will contain “CD quality sound” – iPhone users have a new reason to rejoice.

Source: Mashable

The App Store Is Coming! The App Store Is Coming!

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:00:14 +0000

Google’s App Store is right around the corner – hooray for the 12 people out there who own a Nexus One!

Actually, this is great news for anyone running Android – soon, you’ll be able to download crappy application after crappy application just like your iPhone’d counterparts.

According to the Wall Street Journal, many of the applications planned will be third party add-ons to Google’s existing suite – programs like Gchat, Gmail, Google Maps may soon get programs enhancing their security, filling in gaps in their word processing or allowing for better porting of information.

As someone who’se already in love with the Gsuite (I’ve been using Gmail since college), this is pretty cool news. Hopefully Google won’t be as iron fisted about what they allow or disallow as Apple, who, according to NPR, rejected an application for including the word “fuck.”

Rumor has it that Google will drop it’s announcement in March – when we get more information, we’ll let you know.

Source: Mashable

Image Source: HTCpedia

Apple Exec Promises AT&T Network Upgrade

Nex — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:09:25 +0000

Everyone loves the iPhone, right? It’s the hottest gadget since Eli Whitney started cleaning cotton fibers, but there is one glaring problem with the lil’ status symbol: It’s exclusively tied to AT&T’s cellular network, and AT&T’s cellular network is exclusively tied to dropping calls and spotty service.

Good news for all those iPhone owners trapped in a two-year contract however, as the wireless carrier has approached Apple with a plan to improve its network in direct response to complaints from iPhone owners — assuming you believe Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. “We have personally reviewed these plans, and we have very high confidence that they will make significant progress toward fixing them,” said Cook during a conference call Monday.

The interesting bit here is that AT&T has refused to comment on Cook’s claims. That could just be an attempt at playing coy, or — and the conspiracy theorist part of me is really pulling for this option — perhaps the entire promise is a ploy by Cook to force AT&T into upgrading their network. It would look terrible for the carrier to renege on promises made, even on their behalf, but this saves Apple the trouble of threatening to move their iPhone to a competing network.

And yes, I imagine Cook tenting his fingers and laughing diabolically throughout the conference.

Source: BusinessWeek

Photo Source: Apple

Rumor: An iPhone For All Carriers?

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:00:02 +0000

On January 27th, Apple’s next gigantic, media-friendly launch event occurs, and the rumor mill is cranking into high gear. Mashable reports that Bloomberg reports on a rumor from Tim Horan, an Oppenheimer & Co Telecommunications Analyst.

The rumor? AT&T’s exclusivity agreement with Apple expires mid-2010, and T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and Clearwire will all get iPhone access quickly thereafter. Bloomberg goes onto say that T-Mobile will get it first, which wouldn’t be a surprise – the way they’re snapping up smartphones from Google, it’ll be about time they get their iPhone.

Fun fact: the iPhone is sold by four different carriers in the UK, so the model for this kind of multi-carrier battleground already exists. Here’s my hope -the iPhone’s new universality will lead to price wars unlike the world has ever seen, and the iPhone will come free with a two year agreement that’s actually fair to the consumer. Is that possible at all? Stay tuned – on the 27th, we’ll know a lot more.

Source & Photo Source: Mashable

Apple Schadenfreude: Nexus One Moves “Only” 20,000 Units

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:18:30 +0000

Apparently, the iPhone sold 80 times more units in its launch week than the Nexus One did. In fact, a lot of Android phones out there did better their first week than the Nexus One – just look at that sweet chart from Flurry.com.

For me, the surprise is how other people are surprised – the Nexus One costs $180, and we’re in a recession. Additionally, this is Google’s first physical product, so I can understand consumer skepticism – there’s no real brand loyalty to take advantage of here because everyone’s an early adopter.

To me, this is an example of reporters looking for stage two of their media narrative – the built up the Nexus One through exclusive after exclusive, preview after preview – now it’s time to tear the thing down. It’s hard to write story after story where the headline is “Everything’s Fine: Thing Is Doing As Expected.”

Source: Fast Company

Photo Sourse: Flurry

Apple Sells 3-Billionth iPhone App, 2.99 Billion Are Lightsabers

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:50:26 +0000

Apple may have bad news on the horizon with the release of the Nexus One, but they can hang their hat on today’s news: 3 billion iPhone apps have been sold so far. No word yet on how many of those apps have been good apps.

Seriously, there are 100,000 apps for sale right now in the iTunes store. 20,000 of them are games, so that makes sense, but could there possibly be 80,000 other uses for your iPhone? Their store’s filled with shovelware, if you ask me (which you didn’t).

Also, there are only 50 million iPhones out there, which means that the average user buys…60 apps? You guys know the thing makes phone calls too, right?

Source: AppScout

Photo Source: Hayatekun

Mashable Compiles Gigantic List Of 700+ iPhone App Reviews

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:31:29 +0000

Mashable, a tech website that focuses on social media culture, has compiled a list of 700+ iPhone Apps. They did it in a pretty clever way – by organizing iPhone apps into categories then compiling sub lists made up of other websites top 10 lists. Put 70 top ten lists together, you get 700 reviews. Devilishly clever!

And now, I’m reporting on another website’s reporting of 70 other websites. Horray for blogs, where the recursiveness never ends!

Credit: Mashable

Photo Credit: Subberapps

Haptic Antics: Apple’s Rumored Retractable Keyboard

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:44:38 +0000

If this rumor provided by AppleInsider is true, then Apple is creating an iPhone/Apple Tablet keyboard that retracts when necessary. This would fix the issue with the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard being hard to use – if when entering a URL, a series of 26 bumps were to appear, it’d be a lot easier to enter the data. Then, when you’re ready to go back to clicking and dragging, the bumps would vanish.

Wow, I’ve never spent so much time outlining something that’s a complete rumor, but I’m excited at the very idea of this technology. It’d be like trapping your very own Odo in a cell phone!

I’ll be honest: I’ll take any excuse whatsoever to play video of Odo from Deep Space Nine.

Source: Apple Insider