The Chinese are always quick-on-the-draw with their knockoffs, but this may be the first time we’ve seen a iPhone doppelganger before the handset its emulating is even officially announced.
It’s called the GPS iPhone, and it looks pretty convincing. You know, except for the telescoping television antenna. Somehow, I think Ive would choose to do that a little bit differently. You could gouge your eye out on that thing.
As a former Londoner myself, I can give you clear advice from the outset: don’t take your car into London. It’s slow, expensive, and bound to end up a frustrating experience.
The subject of Google and Android’s major in-roads in the mobile space inevitably came up during Steve Jobs’s interview during the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference this evening. Steve’s take? Google went after Apple, not vice versa. Per Engadget:
Walt: But how about Google? Something has changed. What happened?
Steve: They decided to compete with us… so they are.
Jobs noted that Apple hasn’t gone into the search business and has no plans to. He claimed that he kind of woke up one morning and heard about Android. Given his feelings about loyalty (and the fact that the iPhone was well-underway and had Google working on apps for it), it’s no real surprise that Steve is showing some signs of feeling hurt about the situation. I think he genuinely believed Google wouldn’t try to eat his lunch, even if he’s as ruthless as they come himself.
He ultimately got tired of the line of questioning and tried to end the conversation with a non sequitur: “My sex life is great!”
For the very first time, Steve Jobs spoke publicly at the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference about the much-discussed prototype iPhone that found its way into the hands of Jason Chen at Gizmodo last month. Without going into much detail (and certainly not acknowledging that the model that was being tested had final industrial design, Steve shared more than anyone else from Apple has to date about the incident. As reported on Engadget’s live-blog:
There’s an ongoing investigation. I can tell you what I do know, though. To make a product you need to test it. You have to carry them outside. One of our employees was carrying one. There’s a debate about whether he left it in a bar, or it was stolen out of his bag. The person who found it tried to sell it, they called Engadget, they called Gizmodo.
The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. And this guy was trying to destroy evidence… and his roommate called the police. So this is a story that’s amazing — it’s got theft, it’s got buying stolen property, it’s got extortion, I’m sure there’s some sex in there (huge laughs)… the whole thing is very colorful. The DA is looking into it, and to my knowledge they have someone making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case. I don’t know how it will end up.
If I recall correctly, the details about trying to destroy evidence and the roommate calling police is news. It’ll still be awhile before we know the whole truth of the situation, but it’s certainly been fun keeping an eye on the brouhaha…
Super Monkey Ball was one of the first games that introduced us to the possibilities of gaming on the iPhone & iPod Touch when it was previewed back in March 2008, along with the announcement of the App Store. As the biggest selling game on launch day, Sega set the standard for other 3D games with superb graphics, an intuitive control system and incredibly fun gameplay. Now Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition is available on the iPad, so does this super-sized version live up to the expectations we’ve come to expect from those little monkeys?
My iPhone has become more than just a cell phone — it is really useful and frankly indispensable. It wouldn’t be without the plethora of apps available, but not just any app will do so when I find a good one I like to write about it. Minibooks for Freshbooks is one of those apps. It is a full-featured iPhone invoicing app that makes invoicing my clients fast and easy. If you are a freelancer or contractor – and in these days of unemployment, who isn’t – Minibooks takes the pain out of asking your clients for money.
If you’re dreaming of Netflix for your iPhone, good news: you’re just a jailbreak away. Hacker Knisitruck says that the existing Netflix iPad app is secretly a universal binary and can be easily ported to the iPhone with a few simple steps.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yO2KQHkt4A&feature=player_embedded
If you’re looking for a little project to pursue this Memorial Day, word comes down the pipeline that installing Android on your iPhone 2G or 3G is now easier than ever, thanks to the automated iPhodroid application.
Earlier methods of installing Android on the iPhone were rather complicated, but this new method only requires a jailbroken iPhone running firmware 3.1.2 (in other words, jailbroken using PwnageTool, RedSn0W or Blackra1n and not Spirit), OpenSSH installed with the “alpine” password, MacFuse and the iPhodroid software. Connect your iPhone, run iPhodroid and five minutes later, you’ll have a dual-boot iPhone running the two best mobile operating systems on the market. Shiny.\
[via 9to5Mac]
When Gizmodo got their hands on the first leaked fourth-generation iPhone prototype, they weren’t able to give a resolution for the display. It was a frustrating omission which caused many of us to wish they’d taken a microscope to the display and confirmed resolution through the tedious process of pixel counting.
Someone else has now done just that and seems to have confirmed what we all suspected: the next-gen iPhone display is a 960×640 IPS, quadruple the resolution of the current iPhone.
That’s really impressive: imagine how fantastic games are going to look on the iPhone, or video for that matter… the new iPhone is going to be just shy of native 720p HD. This is turning out to be an iPhone well worth having waited for. WWDC just can’t come soon enough.
If you’re a fan of games like Minigore or Guerilla Bob, then developers GameLab have a treat in store for you – Pirate’s Treasure for iPhone and iPod Touch – boasting stunning 3D graphics, all-out blasting mayhem and bosses too massive to fit on the screen, this game will certainly keep you entertained!
Calling all Star Trek fans out there: The iPhone 3Gs has a universal translator — Jibbigo. Speak into your iPhone in any of the five supported languages, and the iPhone speaks the translation back.
TowerMadness is one of the most popular tower defense games on the iPhone, and now makers, Limbic Software, have released a high-definition version for the iPad which boasts stunning 3D graphics, split-screen multiplayer and eight new maps. But how does this version compare to its smaller predecessor?
In the first year of Windows Phone 7’s launch, Microsoft wants to sell 30 million licenses by the end of 2011… three times the amount of iPhones sold in its first year.
What a joke. There’s simply no way Microsoft can manage that. They aren’t even in the game at this point, and Windows Phone 7 is, at best, playing a game of catch-up with iPhone OS 3.0. Meanwhile, iPhone OS 4.0 — an operating system attached to the world’s best selling smartphone — is right around the corner. And that’s not even mentioning Android, a far superior and more fully featured mobile operating system that is available to every handset manufacturer for free.
Let’s run the math. In the first quarter of the year, Apple sold 8.8 million iPhones compared to Microsoft’s 3.7 million licenses for Windows 7. So for Microsoft to sell 30 million licenses by the end of 2011, they essentially need to keep pace with the most popular smartphone in the world’s sales, without any app library or existing users, while competing with not one, but two superior operating systems with thriving user and app ecosystems, one of which is free.
Perhaps I should just end this post here with one final word: lolwhut?
[via Apple Insider]
Pop quiz. You’re at your local AT&T store when two unarmed men rush in and steal multiple iPhones without harming anyone. What do you do?
a) Calmly wait for the police to arrive and take your report.
b) Rush out of the store on foot, pull out your hand cannon, brace your legs and fire round after round at the fleeing get-away vehicle as onlookers and passers-by scream in terror and dive for cover, all the while laughing maniacally after every squeezed off shot.
Most of us would pick the former, but Roger Witter of Gresham, Oregon chose the latter and ended up in jail for it, prompting the local police to issue this statement in the understatement of the year:
“It is important to remember that no matter how frustrated one may be with crime and the criminal justice system, it is not permissible to use deadly force in this type of situation.”
The two iPhone thieves remain at large… probably because Witter’s Dirty Harry jackassery distracted police long enough for them to make their clean escape. What a doofus.
Here’s a device filling a mystery niche if I’ve ever seen one: the iP49 is a bulky, fold down clamshell travel alarm clock which includes a dock for an iPhone or iPod… itself a travel alarm clock. Double indemnity of redundancy. ho!
Personally, I’m not sure I get it, but in case you do, the iP49 features separate weekday/weekend alarms, customizable snooze times, gradual wake and sleep volume controls so you don’t start off the morning swallowing your tongue.
It also boasts “Bongiovi Acoustics’ patyented Digital Power station technology and four neodymium compression drivers,” which sounds impressive and promises to provide “studio quality” sound wherever you are. It also boasts both an AC adapter and a built-in, rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
The iP49 is available from iHome now for $159.99.
The sometimes accurate, oft wishful thinking Digitimes has a doozy of a story this morning, claiming that the fourth-generation iPhone we’ve seen time and time again in countless leaks might not be the one Jobs hoists onstage at WWDC in June.
According to their interview with senior analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has two iPhones its currently working on, internally called the N90 and the N91. The N90 is the iPhone Gizmo got their hands on, while the N91 is a less impressive handset more similar to the iPhone 3GS.
The N90 is the iPhone Apple wants to release, providing they don’t have any unexpected setbacks (such as component shortages). The N91 is the iPhone they’ll release if they can’t get their ducks in a row.
Egretlist is a neat idea for an iPhone application, based on the data you store inside Evernote.
The app looks inside your Evernote notes (Evernotes?) for checkboxes, and extracts those items on their own. Then it re-arranges and re-displays them in a very smart, Moleskine-style notebook format.
What I like about this idea is that the todo items retain their context inside Evernote. You can keep a short list of todos with the other notes and info that relate to them – then, when you simply want to see the todo list as a whole to see what you should do next, Egretlist gives you that at-a-glance overview.
The Evernote team are impressed as well, and they’ve published an interview with the Egretlist developer that explains the thinking behind it in more detail.
If you’re in the Oakland area in California some time in the next couple of weeks, you might like to pop along to the second iPhontography exhibition.
Organiser Knox Bronson (we’ve mentioned him before) is a keen proponent of iPhone photography, which he considers an entirely new artistic medium.
There are twice as many iPhone OS devices in use as Andorid devices, the mobile advertising company AdMob estimates.
AdMob’s April Mobile Metrics report analyzed the number of unique Android and iPhone devices in its network. The company found that in the US, there were 10.7 million iPhone devices and 8.7 million Android devices. Include the iPod touch, and there are 2 to 1 iPhone OS devices compared to Android. Overseas, the gap is even wider: 3.5 to 1 iPhone devices compared to Android.
The numbers are illustrative because both platforms are growing fast, but there little idea how many are in day-to-day use. For example, Apple has sold 85 million iPhones and iPod touches in the last three years, but doesn’t say how many are in use. At its recent developer conference, Google boasted that it is activating 100,000 Android devices a day. Gartner estimates that Apple’s OS now powers 15.4 percent of global smartphones, while Google’s Android has 9.6 percent of the market.
AdMob says its numbers are good beceause they are based on actual data, not estimates, and it has a large sample size.
Capcom’s fantastic series of lawyerly anime adventure titles, the Ace Attorney series, have been delighting gamers on Nintendo’s handhelds since 2001… and now the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is available to download through iTunes.
The iPhone version of Phoenix Wright is basically a direct port of the Nintendo DS version, with the lower half of the iPhone screen standing in for the DS’ lower display. Otherwise, though, the two games are identical, and as a long-time fan of the series, this is an easy game to recommend if you like quirk, tongue-in-cheek gravitas and cheeky mysteries to solve.
You can buy Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the App Store now for just $4.99.
With every new Apple product comes a new advertising campaign, so it’s no surprise that Cupertino’s already casting for a new campaign centered on the next iPhone. Now Engadget has confirmed it with their sources.
According to Engadget, the next iPhone commercial will be directed by American Beauty director (and mawkish paper bag enthusiast) Sam Mendes will be helming the commercials for the next iPhone, which is being referred to as Mammoth / N90 internally… presumably to keep the actual name of the next iPhone (the only aspect of the device not yet revealed by leaks) underwraps until WWDC.
The spots will apparently heavily promote the next iPhone’s videoconferencing abilities, and one will featureg a mother and daughter having a video iChat call with one another.
Engadget also spotted some Twitter status updates from young actors bragging about their forthcoming auditions…. although I’m guessing after their indiscretion has been picked up by the newsfeeds, their chances of actually landing the roles are pretty slim.
In the ramp up to the official unveiling of the next-generation iPhone next month, megalithic big box retailer Wal-Mart is planning on slashing the price of Apple’s 16GB iPhone 3Gs to just $97.
That’s a $102 savings over the current price, and strongly implies that, next month, the 16GB iPhone 3GS will be AT&T’s new entry-level iPhone and cost $99 in locations across the country (Wal-Mart tends to undercut AT&T’s own prices by a couple of bucks).
To get the deal, customers will need to sign up for a two-year contract from AT&T. However, with talks of a Verizon iPhone hitting at the end of the summer gaining traction, it seems like a short-sighted move to sign up with AT&T before seeing what deals might result from an iPhone price war between two competing national carriers.
This is unlikely to gobsmack anyone, but with a new iPhone right around the corner, the days of the $99 iPhone 3G are likely numbered.
According to Boy Genius Report: ” We’ve heard that Apple has stopped shipping iPhone 3G 8GB units to AT&T stores and orders are not being placed for the device.”
The most obvious interpretation of this is that the iPhone 3GS will plug the place previously filled by the 3G as the entry-level AT&T iPhone… a guess that seems to be strongly evidenced by Wal-Mart’s recent decision to slash the price of the 16GB 3GS to a mere $97.
If you’re a fan of Flight Control HD, you’ll love Harbor Master HD for the iPad from Imangi Studios. It shares the same principles as Flight Control, although instead of planes you’ve got boats, which you must guide to their corresponding colored docks by drawing their route with your finger, ensuring the boats do not make contact with each other along the way.
The way in which Harbour Master is different to Flight Control is that once you have guided a boat to its dock, you must wait for it to unload its cargo before you can guide it back off to sea. This adds just enough complexity and challenge to the game to prevent it being too simple and boring.
If rumors of a Verizon iPhone in September (or a Sprint iPhone later this summer) are true, AT&T is going to have a hard-time keeping iPhone customers on their network after their exclusivity is up. One great way of keeping subscribers would, of course, be to offer better rates and improve their service… but since this is Ma Bell we’re talking about, they’ve just decided to try to almost double the price of Early Termination Fees from $175 to $325 to keep their existing customers locked-in.
To be fair, this is already the price of Verizon’s ETF… so AT&T is really just trying to make it equally difficult for subscribers to walk away from a contract as Verizon already is. Short term, however, it makes it a lot more expensive a proposition for customers to abandon ship for their competitors.
On their part, AT&T is saying the timing of the price increase isn’t related to Verizon getting the iPhone. Yeah, yeah. We’ll believe that only if a CDMA iPhone isn’t announced at WWDC.