July 12, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Apple, OS X
Not really sure how much mileage
Apple is going to get out of this patent, with
Zune and pretty much
everybody else already swapping songs and such wirelessly, but we'll humor 'em all the same. A September 1st, 2006 filing describes methods "for delivery of data to a portable electronic device from another electronic device." For sake of argument, we'll assume they're talking iPhones and iPods here. Applications are pretty broad, ranging from various protected and unprotected media files, to news subscriptions and shopping lists, and syncing can be done automatically and manually. In a definite step above the level of sharing offered by the Zune, subscription files can be shared in an unlimited manner with other subscription users -- though of course that would all be contingent on Apple ever offering a
subscription-based iTunes to its users.
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Posted by Paul Miller under iPod, Mobile | Comments (0)
July 1, 2007
Filed under: Multimedia, Apple, OS X
iPhone users out there are all pretty well familiar with what sort of content they can view on
YouTube at the moment: moonwalking instructional videos are a go, obscure bluegrass fingerpicking tutorials (thanks, Dad) are not. Well, now you've got another option for viewing pointless videos, since it turns out the iPhone can support the iPod/PSP video download option over at Google Video from right within Safari. Not all videos include a download option, and we tried a similar option over at Gametrailers.com to no avail, but who needs alternatives when you can watch sneezing panda eternally? Check out the QuickTime player after the break.
[Thanks, Canek]
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple, OS X
The Today Show's Meredith Vieira doesn't seem quite prepared for Steve Jobs' revolutionary device -- sure she'll agree it's slim and shiny, but that whole "answering calls" thing seems to be a bit out of her field of expertise. We couldn't get the video to play on a Mac, but we'll keep an eye out for a YouTube version, let us know if you see anything.
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, Interviews, ATT, Apple
USA Today wasn't the only publication to get some
alone time with Steve Jobs and Randall Stephenson yesterday, Wall Street Journal has an interview of its own up this morning, with Jobs at his most candid -- which really isn't saying a lot. Most pressing on the mind of hundreds of uber-fans across the country is the kind of supply Apple will have available today. Steve didn't spill any numbers, but he confesses that "We're building a fair number of them, but we may not [meet demand]... We've taken our best guess but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough." Let's just hope it's not the
riots in the streets brand of not enough. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Stephenson also touched on some other interesting topics, with Steve talking with a particular bent toward corporate America, comparing the EDGE speed of the iPhone to a BlackBerry: "You know every (AT&T) BlackBerry gets its mail over EDGE." He also expects a slew of third party corporate apps, saying: "I think the majority of applications people are going to write for the iPhone are going to be things that corporations like." Steve and Randall also seem to be particular fans of WiFi-based VoIP, and while the iPhone certainly isn't supporting that out of the box, it seems like it could be a big thrust for Apple and AT&T going forward.
[Via
InfoWorld]
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, ATT, Apple
With just a few days to go before launch, Apple has apparently lifted its embargo on the lucky few journos to get their hands on an
iPhone a couple weeks early, and David Pogue, Walt Mossberg and USA Today's Edward C. Baig are doing the first honors. And honors abound: three out of three reviewers agree that the iPhone is pretty much the sexiest phone to ever hit the market, and there was no small amount of praise for the high resolution screen, svelte form factor and sturdy construction -- nano scratchers rejoice, nobody managed to make a mark on this thing. The iPhone turns out to be a bit of conundrum, excelling and even revolutionizing certain phone functions, while utterly failing at others. First the bad: call quality is only average, and AT&T's weak sauce signal wasn't doing the iPhone any favors. It also can be a rather multi-step affair to even make a call, since there's no home screen speed dial or voice recognition, and the phonebook can't be searched, only scrolled through. Other failings like the lack of MMS, IM chat and video recording are even more mysterious. And that EDGE data? Pogue found himself longing for the days of dial-up, while waiting 1-2 minutes for popular sites to load, and while WiFi was quick to save the day in many instances, that's hardly an excuse in the year 2007. Luckily, there's plenty to love about this new approach to phoning, like an excellent web browser, mail client, visual voicemail and Cover Flow-enhanced iPod functions -- they're what Apple has been tooting its horn about, and they all seem to work as advertised. The keyboard more or less requires "faith" in the word auto-correction, an Apple rep likened it to using The Force, and while all three reviewers were able to get up to speed sooner or later, it's most certainly agreed that this is no BlackBerry-killer. Battery life was a non-issue, outstripping most smartphones, and nearly meeting Apple's
claims.
Read - David Pogue "The iPhone matches most of its hype"
Read - Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret "Despite its network limitations, the iPhone is a whole new experience and a pleasure to use" (Check out Walt's video review after the break)
Read - Edward C. Baig "Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype"
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 22, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple
We know, we know, seven days is just too long to wait. So what's a salivating
iPhone junkie to do to pass the time?
Apple has the answer with its new incredibly detailed "Guided Tour" video of the device. No real secrets being revealed, but the video gives an in-depth look into the ins and outs of using most of the apps and getting your way around everyday functions like unlocking the phone, merging phone calls and skipping through Visual Voicemail like a rockstar. There's nothing here to dispel doubters, since the real proof of the pudding is going to come from touching the screen with your own hands and waiting on EDGE to deliver sites quite a bit slower than shown in the demo, but the true believers in the room aren't going to be exactly disappointed by the consistently slick interface and features shown off in the video.
Update: Engadget buddy Michael Gartenberg points out that "
if you watch closely, you'll notice mail does appear to support Office attachments after all." Damn, there goes one more solid argument for the WinMo camp.
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, ATT, Apple
The wait is over, and you can finally train that
Apple Remote of yours on videos of passable karaoke, mind numbing video blog confessions and the genius that is Daxflame. That's right,
YouTube is hitting the
Apple TV today, an announcement that is totally overshadowed by a little surprise
Apple packed into the press release: YouTube is the
iPhone mystery app. Sure, it might not be GPS or anything useful like that, but Apple seems to be aware of our addiction and is happy to oblige. YouTube videos can be viewed through an Apple-built application on the phone, and will be encoded in H.264 by YouTube to improve video quality and battery life on mobile devices. They'll have 10,000 videos ready by June 29th, and should complete transcoding the collection by this fall. Videos can be viewed over WiFi or EDGE, we don't want to even imagine the painful load times of the latter.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Apple PR
Read - iPhone YouTube demo
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 19, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple
Yeah, don't pretend like you didn't see this one coming. Completely unsubstantiated "market sources" rumors are making the rounds that
Apple is already prepping a lower cost
iPhone variant. Warning: completely mundane "analysis" follows. According to American Technology Research analyst
Shaw Wu, "Apple needs to round out its iPhone product line at lower price points (similar to iPod) if it expects to replicate the success of its iPod with sales of 100 million units." Shaw Wu has been right on a couple Apple predictions in the past, but it doesn't take much to guess that Apple is currently at work on, or at least thinking about, a second generation of iPhone. Price drops also seem inevitable, and Shaw's predictions hold few surprises. He claims to have heard of "lower cost iPhone prototypes for release at unspecified future dates" from his sources, and maybe he has, but we're not going to start proclaiming Apple's dominion over all form factors and price points (as entertainingly conceptualized above) just yet.
[Via
The Raw Feed]
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
Filed under: Nokia
In a complete reversal of its "not enthusiastic" stance on touchscreens
voiced last week by Antti Vasara, the company's General Manager of Mobile Devices, Nokia has come out in favor of that
completely unproven little technology. "Optical sensors and touch will be the next big things," said Nokia Chief Technology Officer Tero Ojanpera today, in the leadup to the CommunicAsia telecom fair. "I believe there will be a lot of innovation around these." Apparently he didn't get the "people don't like touchscreens" memo. And it's really too bad that Nokia's still
waiting for demand to pep up before jumping into those scary waters, it'd be a shame to miss out on the "next big thing."
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple
Apple's tooting its own horn about some new spec upgrades to its imminent
iPhone. No, it's not 3G, GPS or anything crazy like that, but we'll settle for a battery life upgrade anytime, and screen durability doesn't hurt neither. Apple claims that its
preliminary estimates of 5 hours of talk time, internet use and video playback were a tad conservative, and the iPhone instead will be boasting of 8 hours of chatting, 6 hours of internet and 7 hours of video. Audio playback has been boosted from 16 to 24 hours, and standby is at a welcome 250 hours. Of course, Apple does have tendency to exaggerate slightly on the battery life front, but these are promising figures, and should manage to provide a day or two's worth of solid use out of the thing. On the screen side, Apple has upgraded the original plastic surface of the phone to some "optical-quality glass" to improve scratch resistance and clarity. Check after the break for a handy battery life chart.
Update: Not sure how we missed this little snafu, but no Apple, you aren't
the only one on that chart with WiFi.
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Posted by Paul Miller under Mobile | Comments (0)
