The iPhone 3.0, iPhone 4G, or whatever Apple decides to call it, will finally make the leap into that select group of mobile phones (i.e. about 90% of the decent ones) that can record moving pictures with its very own video camera, says an anonymous source.
The iPhone’s lack of video recording was one of the more serious let-downs when Apple launched the device, and one that Apple stubbornly refused to correct with the release of the iPhone 3G. Apple may have had its reasons, but ‘lesser’ mobiles have been recording video clips for years and not being able to do the same on such a premium phone seems, well, a bit silly - particularly when the iPhone prototype apparently did come with at least video calling.
Apple Insider recently received word from a trusted - if anonymous - source that this sorry state of affairs is about to change when Apple releases the next generation of iPhone handsets. Apple are apparently planning to include a video camera function on at least one new iPhone.
Now, this obviously points to there being more than one new iPhone coming soon, which tallies with other rumours about iPhone Nanos, etc. Also supporting the video camera rumours is the ‘publish video’ button spotted in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta that has been doing the rounds - although there was a suspicion that ‘publish video’ was a typo as it appeared on a ‘publish image’ app.
Apple Insider describe their source as ‘extremely reliable’ and as someone who has provided solid intel on previous Apple launches. They also speculate that Apple may include support for faster mobile internet (probably HSPA) in order to facilitate streaming video over the airwaves.
Along with the introduction of the iPhone in January 2007, Apple also announced the iPhone Bluetooth Headset, a small, sleek-looking wireless earpiece that cost $129 and featured automatic paring with the iPhone. It originally shipped with a travel cable and dual dock, both of which allowed it to be simultaneously charged along with your iPhone.
In July last year, Apple stopped bundling the dual dock with the headset and dropped the price to $99, perhaps in an attempt to bolster disappointing sales. It didn’t seem to have helped, though, since the product has now been discontinued.
Given the amount of negative criticism it garnered in its short life, that's not exactly surprising. The Apple Store listing for the product has hundreds of average and below-average ratings and our own Dan Frakes said in his review that the headset “doesn't provide the best performance on the market, nor does it offer an extensive set of features.” Not to mention there's an extensive market of third-party headsets with better performance, cheaper price tags, more features, or some combination of all three.
As someone who’d considered purchasing the headset when I’d bought my iPhone, I’m a little disappointed by this move and hope that Apple will come up with a replacement for it, unlikely though that may be. Sure, it was utterly lacking in the performance department, but Apple did have the integration angle down pat, what with the automatic iPhone pairing and ability to display the unit's charging status on the iPhone’s screen.
Although the headset has been discontinued, it can still be added to your cart and purchased off the Apple Store, so if you want to do so, now is as good a time as any. I’m pretty certain it isn’t going to be around much longer.
CUPERTINO, Calif. — In a shot across the bow of other mobile phone makers that are rushing to emulate aspects of its popular iPhone, Apple on Tuesday previewed some features that are due out in the next version of the phone’s software.
IPhone OS 3.0, as Apple calls it, will allow developers to create multiplayer games that work over a local wireless connection, better integrate the maps that Apple and Google have developed for the device, and “push” messages to users through their programs.
That last improvement could unleash a new wave of creativity on the iPhone. Companies like ESPN.com can send score updates to sports fans, and instant messaging can now become far more practical on the device.
Programs can solicit the attention of users with either a pinging sound or a text message. Apple said it was late developing such “push notifications” because of the challenge of preserving battery life and processing power.
Apple said the new operating system would be available to current iPhone users at no charge sometime this summer. It will sell for $9.95 to owners of the iPod Touch.
The new software will also give developers new ways to make money on the device, allowing them to sell monthly subscriptions, new levels in a game or items in an online store without asking users to leave the application. So for example a seller of electronic books on the iPhone can sell digital texts right within its application, instead of directing iPhone users to their Web sites.
Representatives of the game developer Ngmoco were at Apple’s event and demonstrated how players of its virtual pet game can buy clothes for their digital animals, and how users of its shoot-em-up games can pay small amounts of money to upgrade their arsenals.
Purchases are tied into the iTunes store, where users have already stored their credit card information.
Scott Forstall, an Apple senior vice president, added that developers who make free applications available on the iPhone will not be able to later charge within their program, saying that “free apps remain free.”
Apple demonstrated a long-awaited “cut, copy and paste” function, so users can select a piece of information in one program — say, a FedEx tracking number in an e-mail message — and then paste it elsewhere — on FedEx’s site in the Web browser, for example. Other mobile phone platforms, like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, have long had their own versions of that feature.
Apple also said it was adding support for MMS, a way to send and receive multimedia files like photos and audio files over the mobile phone network, and is extending Spotlight, a feature of its desktop operating system that allows users to conduct searches through all information on the device.
At a similar event last March, Apple first introduced the App Store, which has become a significant source of revenue for Apple and the central focus of its advertising for the iPhone. More than 25,000 applications have been created for the device, and they have been downloaded more than 800 million times over the last eight months.
But the iPhone itself could use a boost. Though Apple exceeded its public sales goals for the device, it sold 6.9 million phones during its fall quarter, then only 4.4 million units over the holiday months.
Many Apple watchers believe the company is preparing to unveil new hardware updates to the iPhone over the summer, and they speculate that they might include a less expensive version.
“The numbers indicate there is some leveling off of excitement,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst. “Sometime later this year they have to introduce something different or the competition from the Palm Pre, Google’s Android, RIM or other device makers will be significant.”
Get the latest features of iPhone firmware 3.0 here.
As promised, Apple just debuted its upcoming iPhone OS 3.0. Much of the news seemed developer-centric, but there are certainly plenty of consumer implications down the road, along with long-awaited functions like copy and paste, A2DP, MMS and universal Spotlight search. Improvements include:
App and developer functionality
Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping.
Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.
Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps, and can also finally bring Apple-blessed turn-by-turn to the phone.
Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now, such as a blood pressure monitor -- or perhaps a keyboard? Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth.
Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won't run in the background.
Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.
General functionality
Cut, copy and paste. At last! You can shake the phone to undo and redo the action, and it works with both text and photos, allowing Mail to send multiple photos at a time.
MMS, along with forward and delete for multiple messages.
A2DP stereo Bluetooth.
Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod touch.
Spotlight has been added to a new home screen page to the left of existing pages, allowing for universal search on the phone.
Tethering is built into 3.0, and Apple will work with carriers on that -- who will have the last say on its implementation, most likely.
App Store will be available in 77 countries.
Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps.
Auto-login for WiFi hotspots.
Apple apps
A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.
A revised Stocks app, with news stories and a landscape view.
Landscape view available for Mail, Text and Notes.
CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.
Apple's major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.
Note syncing to Mac and PC.
YouTube account support.
Form auto-fill.
Phishing protection.
Shake the shuffle iPod playback.
A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today, and the 3.0 update will be coming to consumers this summer as a free update to all iPhone 3G customers. It'll also work for 1st gen iPhone owners, though they won't receive A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations. iPod touch owners will be able to update for $9.95, just like last time.
The controversy about Apple's sometimes-odd decisions to exclude certain iPhone programs from its App Store is likely to get a renewed airing soon, as it has emerged that disgruntled programmers are setting up their own unofficial App Store in response to being shut out.
US developer Jay Freeman plans to build on his existing Cydia installer program by opening an alternative iPhone software store offering programs that require the iPhone to be jailbroken.
Apple dead against it
The move is sure to be controversial, as Apple is vehemently against users jailbreaking their handsets to allow unofficial applications to run.
It most recently filed legal opposition in February to proposed US legislation that would confirm the legality of iPhone jailbreaking.
Piracy issue
Apple says it needs to control the iPhone platform to prevent piracy of third-party applications, thus protecting developers' revenues.
Many iPhone users, on the other hand, would like a little freedom to put what they like on their own phones. We haven't heard the last of this.
The new mobile iphone has created all new opportunities and new streams of incomes for developers. One way is to make applications for the iphone and sell it on the app store so if you have the skills, you are in demand. this is really working well for many people.
But if you don’t want to make an application there are other ways to get money including the PWN2OWN competition sponsored by TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) team. All you have to do is to participate in the competition and exploit a vulnerability and get $10,000 for each vulnerability.
And it is not even necessarily an iphone there are other phones including fully patched BlackBerry, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones in their default configurations all waiting for you to hack them. And don’t worry you aren’t doing anything illegal and you aren’t allowed to share the vulnerabilities with anyone.
Well even if you don’t know anything about mobile phones you can also win half the price i.e. $5,000 to find out a vulnerability in web browser and some are putting their money on Apple's Safari.
Apple Inc.'s Safari is the juiciest target in the upcoming PWN2OWN hacking contest, last year's winner predicted today.
"It's an easy target," said Charlie Miller, the vulnerability researcher who last year walked off with a $10,000 cash prize for breaking into an Apple laptop just a few minutes into the contest. PWN2OWN is slated for its third appearance at the CanSecWest security conference later this month in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"It might be because I'm biased about the things I'm good at, but it's the easiest browser [to hack]," Miller said.
PWN2OWN's sponsor, 3Com Inc.'s TippingPoint unit, will pay $5,000 for each new bug successfully exploited in Safari, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox or Google Inc.'s Chrome. IE8, Firefox and Chrome will be running on a Sony notebook powered by Windows 7, Microsoft's still-under-construction operating system, while Safari and Firefox will be available on a MacBook.
"Apple's products are really friendly to users, and Safari is designed to handle anything, including all kinds of file formats," said Miller. "With a lot of functionality comes the increased chance of bugs. The more complex software is, the less secure it is."
Another factor making Safari easy pickings, said Miller, is Apple's Mac OS X, which lacks the workable defenses found in Windows Vista and Windows 7, including address space randomization -- which Microsoft calls "address space layout randomization," or ASLR.
Put Safari atop Mac OS X, and the target's too good to pass up, said Miller.
IE8 and Firefox will escape unscathed, Miller predicted, adding that a quick cost-benefit analysis tells him they'll be safe. "They make it so hard that, for me, $5,000 isn't motivation enough to try to break one of those guys," he said. As for Chrome, he pleaded ignorance, saying that he didn't know enough about the browser to even provide a prediction. His gut instinct, however, is that Google's browser will also survive.
Miller has also been sharpening his mobile device vulnerability and exploit skills -- he was the first researcher to uncover a security bug in Google's Android operating system -- and therefore will take a stab at the second PWN2OWN contest. That challenge will pit researchers against five smartphone operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, and the operating systems used by the iPhone and BlackBerry.
TippingPoint will pay double, or $10,000, for each bug exploited at the contest.
"I'll be trying to break Safari," said Miller. "If I say it's easy, I have to try, right? But I also want to show my stuff on mobile."
He declined to say which smartphone he will target. It's likely, however, that he'll be looking at the iPhone; Miller was one of three researchers who found the first iPhone vulnerability, just weeks after the device's mid-2007 debut.
Nor would Miller get specific about the vulnerabilities he has in mind or is investigating. "You pretty much have to show up [with a vulnerability and exploit] and be ready to go," said Miller. "The great thing about PWN2OWN is that it's not just about finding bugs, but about finding bugs that can be exploited, and then coming up with an exploit."
Miller works as a principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators LLC, a security consulting firm, and said he is looking forward to the contest, which kicks off March 18. "I have to defend my championship, don't I?"
Analysts at Informa are predicting that sales of phones using Google’s Android operating system will outpace Apple by 2012.
In a review of the state of the mobile phone operating system market the company predicts that open source will be key to the growth of mobile platforms, both in terms of opening up users to new applications but also keeping costs down for manufacturers.
“The smartphone segment is no longer as simple as it was a few years ago”, says Gavin Byrne, Research Analyst at Informa.
“In 2008, there were almost 162 million smartphones sold, surpassing notebook sales for the first time. The decision to move the Symbian platform to open source is crucial in maintaining its leadership over Android, Linux and Microsoft”
He points out that Symbian’s market share has dropped from nearly two thirds of the market a few years ago to less than half today. This is primarily because of Nokia’s poor performance in the sector but also in the growth of competing platforms.
Overall the coming year will be a tough one for manufacturers he said, with sales volumes likely to drop by over 10 per cent in 2009.
“While demand in the mid tier will fall away during 2009, sales of new smartphones will grow over 30 per cent to 211.2 million units, driven by innovative new devices and operator subsidies designed to promote mobile data consumption, so that by 2013 almost four in every ten handsets sold worldwide will be a smartphone.”
These kinds of figures are attracting interest from non-traditional manufacturer to get into the market. Acer has already announced that it will be producing a smartphone model and Dell is rumoured to be working on its own device.
Zen Bound has been one of the most anticipated iPhone games of 2009 -- the ultimate calm and meditative puzzler that pairs a unique idea with flawless execution. What's more, it trains your mind while being fun. Zen Bound is also gorgeous to look at and makes great use of iPhone's accelerometer sensor. On pair with the likes of Edge and Rolando, but with a new twist, Zen Bound takes puzzlers on the iPhone to new, uncharted territories.
When Steve Jobs first took a prototype iPhone in his hands and touched its screen during the January 2007 iPhone introduction, the crowd went wild. To many of us, it is this perfect interaction between a human finger and the user interface that still amazes us the most. Since then, many applications have taken advantage of the iPhone's many sensors, like an amusing iSteam.
App Store games, however, are fully exploiting sensor capabilities to elevate otherwise dull mobile gaming experience to new heights. In fact, most iPhone games owe their playability to a creative use of accelerometer sensors. Paired with a clever idea and nice graphics, some iPhone games are well worth the money and went on to become big hits, like Ngmoco's Rolando.
In short: a game of rope and wood
Secret Exit's Zen Bound, published by Chillingo, is difficult to describe. Like the best iPhone games out there, Zen Bound combines a unique idea with superb technical executions and innovative use of controls. Basically a game of rope and wood, Zen Bound has you rotating a piece of rope around various wood and stone objects suspended mid-air, and all in 3D. I know what you're thinking, but give me a moment to explain why this precious gem has already been awarded first prize in the Excellence in 3D category at the IMGA awards, and why it ended up as a finalist in both Best iPhone game and Audio Achievement categories at the IGF Mobile 2009.
When you're wrapping a rope in Zen Bound, you are also painting the object's surface where the rope touches it. When you paint a preset percentage of an object's surface, you advance to the next level. The excellent control scheme relies on dragging with one or two fingers to rotate an object or spin it radially. To control where the rope is held, you simply rotate the handset. Such combination of finger and tilt controls feels natural and completely blurs the line between portrait and landscape gameplay orientation as it is constantly in flux. There are no time-limits so you can fully focus on the task at hand. You are only bound by the preset rope length in each level but this actually stimulates your mind to look for a shortest painting-route to set records and get bonus points.
Gameplay: Uniquely captivating
Such a design also extends longetivity and promotes such a mindful way of playing that it will have you getting back to already finished levels to improve upon your score, but don't get me wrong -- a high score is not the goal of a game like this that wants to be enjoyed at a slower pace. Instead, Zen Bound challenges you in subtle, clever ways, without attacking or forcing you. You will be surprised with how a simple task like wrapping rope around wooden sculptures can become surprisingly complex.
There are 51 levels in total that take far more than a few hours to finish, and more levels will come in future updates.
It turns out that Apple's video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market.
In fact, the iPhone is such a flop in the Land of the Rising Sun that it's being given away free with a 2-year contract, Wired News reports.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that carrier charges are a lot cheaper in Japan than they are in the U.S., and Apple hasn't learned to compete.
Few Japanese want to pay $60 per month to use a phone that can't shoot video, receive TV signals or text-message photos.
"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," one expert on the Japanese cell-phone market tells Wired News. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."
While it was fun to see Windows 3.1 running on Nokia’s N95, it probably didn’t sit well with some Apple fans. “What about our iPhone? Isn’t there anything that can be done to install a Mac OS on it besides the mobile OS X that it’s already got?” I don’t really know why anyone would want that, but a group that has been working on what is called the “MacOS iPhone Project” for a few weeks now have released photos showing the iPhone running Apple’s System 7. System 7 was first introduced in 1991 and was where QuickTime made its first appearance.
Some photos from the MacOS iPhone project show that it is possible to run applications like MacPaint, Calculator, and MacDraw on the iPhone. This is apparently done using QEMU, the same processor emulator that made running Windows 3.1 on the N95 possible. Mac OS 7 can be launched via an application launcher that resides on the iPhone’s home screen. I’m not sure where this will all lead (running old, outdated operating systems on new hardware), but at least the people working on projects like these have things to spend their time on. And that’s a good thing, I guess.
In September 2008, Apple changed its policy regarding the submission of reviews on the App Store: only legitimate customers, i.e. people who'd installed the app in question, would be allowed to leave reviews for it.
Our own Peter Cohen suggested shortly thereafter that although that was a great move in and of itself, Apple should have ideally kicked it up a notch and deleted all reviews from the App Store, starting from square one. The idea was to get rid of all those junk reviews complaining about the price of applications which invariably came from people who'd never even used them in the first place.
It's five months later now and it appears Apple has finally acted upon Peter's suggestion--or maybe it was an irate phone call from Jobs after he'd read a particularly nasty review of the Keynote Remote [iTunes link] app that prompted the company to pull the switch. Although Apple did not drop the axe on all existing reviews on the App Store, it has reportedly gotten rid of all reviews submitted by non-customers, effectively cleaning out the junk while leaving the genuine reviews in place. Apple, however, did not respond to a request for comment.
As a result, most application developers are now finding themselves with significantly fewer total reviews for their applications but higher average ratings; I doubt most of them will find this a reason to complain. Doesn't it give you a fuzzy, happy feeling every time you see Apple do something based on user/developer feedback? Sure does to me.
Amid all the discussion of micropayments and other ways that the creators of news and other content can be paid for their work, the iTunes App store is shaping up to be a surprisingly viable way to sell all sorts of information and entertainment.
There is a lot more content of the sort you would have bought in the past but now you can get free on the Web: a directory of Congressional offices, standup comedy routines, gym workout videos, Zagat restaurant guides and a growing library of books. There is also a fair bit of free content, public-domain e-books like the complete works of Shakespeare and lots of advertising-supported media. (BusinessWeek has a report this week on the App store’s role in music.)
What’s most interesting is how iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not.
I’ve criticized Apple from time to time for not having a coherent approach to delivering free content with advertising. But in some ways, the development of a market for paid content is a bigger and less expected achievement.
Why has this happened? Apple has created an environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. Paying for software, especially games, is not new to Apple customers. So when you see the iPhone manual or the Frommer’s Paris guidebook, it feels natural to click. (And of course, your credit card is already on file with Apple.)
There are certainly other precedents. Many people who steal songs through Limewire nonetheless pay $1.99 to use the same tunes as ringtones. And for avid book readers, Amazon’s Kindle has found a market willing to pay for electronic books. Apple is also starting to sell subscriptions to bundles of music, video and images from certain bands, like Depeche Mode. This is technically a product of the Music store, not the App store, but it still shows how people may be willing to pay for various bundles of content online
There is a lot of work to do here. For example, I find the O’Reilly iPhone book a little hard to use. The text doesn’t seem particularly well-formatted for the iPhone page. And I would love to see more interactive features that utilize the phone interface (including some of David’s videos).
Andrew Savikas, O’Reilly’s vice president for digital initiatives, agrees with me, saying that the iPhone manual was rushed to get it out before Christmas. The company now has 20 titles in development for the iPhone (and eventually other mobile phones), and it is spending more time weaving in hyperlinks and adding other features.
“There is a lot more we can do to take advantage of this as a new medium,” he said. O’Reilly, which sells to a lot of early adopters, has a range of digital distribution media.
“We try to say all of our writing is writing for the Web, and all of our publishing is digital publishing, so all our focus is building things into the content that make it more friendly to be digital,” he said.
Before media companies rejoice that Apple has found a way to persuade a generation used to getting everything free on the Web to pay for some content, they should look a bit more closely at O’Reilly’s experience with the iPhone manual.
The book, which sells for $24.99, was initially offered as an iPhone app for $4.99. When the publisher raised the price to $9.99, sales fell 75 percent. O’Reilly quickly dropped the price back down to the lower level.
“This audience is very price sensitive,” Mr. Savikas said.
So even if all content doesn’t have to be free, it may well have to be cheap.
There’s a pretty good article over at GigaOM that touches on the Open vs Closed argument of technology. Specifically, it pits Android and iPhone against each other because of the obvious contrasting strategies and philosophies behind their parent companies, Google and Apple.
We can’t deny that the iPhone is wildly successful in spite of (or because of?) their closed, proprietary nature. It’s essentially the dilemma that iPhone users have been trying to find the balance to–the iPhone’s closed nature creates a clean, seamless and synergetic user experience but it often comes at the expense of the freedom of choice. You have to trust Apple enough to play nice and take a leap of faith with the direction of the iPhone.
But does that leave Google free and clear? According to GigaOM: hardly. The point has been driven before but Android isn’t married to a specific hardware form factor, any philosophical software, or well, anything, for that matter. Google has made it loud and clear that Android is open source and that it can be shaped however the user base intends to shape it. But does that openness come at the expense of the user experience? Google can’t remain fully “open” for fear of fracturing that holy grail of user experience. In a sense, GigaOM is advising Google to remain open with limits; implementing a sort of theoretically open playground that would still necessitate rules and fair play.
And though we believe Android is unique and its ceiling is higher than its competitors because of that “openness”, we tend to agree with GigaOM: that Google needs to set “parameters” with Android because mobile platforms are all about predictability and user friendliness and less about openness. In a sense, being open is good, being less than fully “open” is better.
The general public wants a phone to act and react a certain way, and without a certain amount of consistency in the platform–it can create a jagged experience that turns off many. Sure, a lot of people complain about the iPhone’s stringent app approval process but there’s certainly a lot more who are happy with just how easy and simple everything else works. It’s going to be dangerous territory for Android to tread because the tech savvy will be undoubtedly saddened if Google closes its openness but the more general public may see it as a heck of a lot more friendly.
GigaOM sums it up best:
The reality is that openness is just an attribute -– it’s not an outcome, and customers buy outcomes. They want the entire solution and they want it to work predictability. Only a tiny minority actually cares about how or why it works. It’s little wonder, then, that the two device families that have won the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of consumers, developers and service providers alike (i.e., BlackBerry and iPhone) are the most deeply integrated from a hardware, software and service layer perspective.
We know it’s a lot to digest but we want to know what do you guys think. Open or closed? Android or iPhone? Does it even matter?
Since the App Store launched, there hasn't been much that has really tempted me to jailbreak my iPhone. I don't think Mini vMac for iPhone actually will either, but just that fact that it exists at all is a trip for the nostalgic Macheads out there. Mini vMac is an open source Mac Plus emulator that has now been ported to the iPhone (a regular OS X version exists as well).
It emulates a 4MB Mac Plus; as the video above shows, it allows you to scroll to show the full display and even load Mac OS disk images and run classic Mac software. It's safe to say that this will never make to the App Store because it violates Apple's rules against emulators.
Mini vMac for iPhone requires a jailbroken iPhone, and can be loaded by adding the namedfork.net repository to the Cydia installer as described on the main page. You'll also have to round up a Mac Plus ROM image and disk images of any applications you want to run.
Pinch Media, who provide metrics/analytics for iPhone users recently gave a presentation on “AppStore Secrets” that highlighted what they’re seeing in terms of free vs. ad supported vs. paid, and usage patterns over time.
They try to provide developers with some useful number crunching on how and when to determine if their application is “sticky” and modulate price and ad support, but they also show some things that are interesting from the user perspective:
We don’t use free apps that much. Sure, we download them by the gigabyte-full, but after a few tries, it’s buh-bye. If we pay for it, we probably need/want it more, and hence use it more.
We keep using games longer than any other type of app.
Things rings true for me. Of all the apps I’ve downloaded (and they’ve been many, free and paid), about the only ones I use consistently are casual games and communication clients (IM, Twitter, etc.) The rest of the time, I’m using built-in apps like Safari, Email, iPod, etc. And even among those “sticky” apps, when I’ve had my fill of one game, I move on to another. When a new Twitter or IM client comes out, I switch to it (and sometimes switch back and forth).
What about you? Do you stop using free apps faster than paid? And what apps do you keep using?
Seattle - The high cost and unusual design of the Apple iPhone made many very skeptical of the new device, but the iPhone is now accepted as the finest smartphone on the market today. By expanding it’s capabilities far beyond any normal phone through the use of iPhone Apps, the Apple iPhone has become a popular piece of technology.
Almost any sort of game, function or software can be loaded onto an iPhone through the App Store, and the popularity and versatility this provides has made the iPhone has made it’s competitors jealous.
In an attempt to copy the power and functionality provided by iPhone Apps, Nokia and T-Mobile have partnered to create a phone-based digital-content store for their phones known as “Ovi Apps.”
Ovi Apps is openly similar to the iPhone’s App Store, and specifically designed to compete.
This feature will be compatible with all Series 40 devices. While such copying of Apple is not unheard of, especially considering Google and Microsoft both have phone-based digital storefronts, many people are questioning if Nokia has arrived too late to the game to make a difference.
Still, Ovi Apps will add a great amount of value and functionality to Nokia Series 40 phones, and is greatly anticipated by the Nokia community.
There’s no way to emulate the iPhone on Windows, but Shaun Sullivan has the next best thing: taking a Windows build of WebKit and embedding it inside an iPhone-like Chrome. It’s not perfect, but it’s as close as Windows users are going to get for now–and is very handy for checking how your site will likely look (modulo font issues).
It's been clear for a while that Apple seems to have settled into midyear iPhone refresh cycles as it closes in on the two-year anniversary of its debut, but more signs are pointing to a summer launch.
Think Equity Partners put out a report this week, spotted by AppleInsider, that says Apple has essentially cleaned out Samsung's supply of flash memory in recent weeks. Apple has also asked Toshiba and Hynix to step up with more flash memory, according to Think Equity, as it prepares for an iPhone launch.
Apple has a contract in place with the three companies, as well as Intel and Micron, to supply flash memory for Apple's products through 2010. But Apple tends to launch new iPods in the second half of the year around a September music event, making it much more likely that this buildup has a new iPhone in mind.
The spring parade of iPhone rumors has not fully blossomed as of yet, but one persistent rumor is that Apple has some sort of low-cost iPhone in the pipeline, based on CEO Steve Jobs' comments about price umbrellas during an earnings conference call and a recent report suggesting a $99 iPhone is on tap.
Apple COO Tim Cook, however, has dismissed talk of Apple playing in the entry-level phone business, so as usual, it's hard to tell exactly what Apple has in mind. But even if all Apple did was double the storage capacity of the iPhone to 16GB and 32GB, it would need a lot more flash memory chips.
When we think of NIC Inc. … well, truthfully, often there isn’t much of a reason to think of NIC.Olathe-based NIC is one of those companies that, when it’s doing everything right, you rarely hear about.
NIC provides the engine that powers hundreds of government Web sites across the United States.
That means you can renew your auto tags online in Kansas, register a business in Utah or license a snowmobile in Maine using a Web platform built by NIC.
So if we do think about NIC, we certainly don’t think about the Apple iPhone. But that’s changing.
NIC developed a software application for the iPhone that became an almost instant hit in the Apple App Store.
Most Wanted is a free iPhone application that feeds the phone information about, and photos of, criminals from the FBI’s most-wanted list, most-sought terrorists and missing children.
More then 30,000 iPhone and iPod Touch owners downloaded the application in its first 100 hours in the store. The application was No. 6 on the list of Apple’s most popular iPhone utilities.
The lists of missing children, most-wanted criminals and terrorists get updated from FBI databases whenever an iPhone or iPod Touch user launches the application.
Harry Herington, NIC’s chief executive, said Most Wanted was the company’s second iPhone application. The first was USA Live, an application with a patriotic theme that features an animated image of a waving American flag, kids reading the Pledge of Allegiance, a place to donate to worthy causes and stories about patriotic Americans.
Herington said that USA Live got such a good response from NIC employees that the company’s staff decided to develop Most Wanted.
So why is a publicly traded e-government company developing free iPhone applications?
“It’s a cool thing that we can have that employees can take pride in,” Herington said.
“As an ex-law enforcement officer, I felt strongly that developing and launching the Most Wanted application was the right thing for NIC to do as it directly supports two very important groups — families of missing children and law enforcement.”
Herington once worked as police officer in Wichita and homicide detective in Texas.
Most Wanted’s popularity has surprised the company.
“I thought it was cool, and I thought my ex-cop buddies would think it was cool, but to reach 30,000 downloads so quickly?” Herington said.
Designing for mobile handsets isn’t new for NIC. Many of the company’s government clients use NIC platforms that allow consumers to do business on their smart phones.
“We launched mobile applications back in 2002,” Herington said.
In Kansas, for instance, consumers can do anything on an iPhone that they can do on a PC — including paying their taxes, Herington said.
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The iPhone’s lack of video recording was one of the more serious let-downs when Apple launched the device, and one that Apple stubbornly refused to correct with the release of the iPhone 3G. Apple may have had its reasons, but ‘lesser’ mobiles have been recording video clips for years and not being able to do the same on such a premium phone seems, well, a bit silly - particularly when the iPhone prototype apparently did come with at least video calling.
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