Citing anonymous sources, the Apple news site says the functionality of the application will be similar to what Apple built into the iPod Nano. That includes the ability to pause live FM transmissions and fast-forward when you resume playing.
According to 9 to 5 Mac, the delay in getting the app to market is Apple’s decision to integrate it with the iTunes Store, which is built into the devices. With this integration, people will be able to tap on a song they hear on the radio and buy it through iTunes.
Of course, Apple wouldn’t be the first company to offer some type of FM functionality on the iPhone. Applications like Wunder Radio have been around for over a year and enable people to stream Internet radio to their iPhone and iPod Touch.
The big advantage Apple would have is linking its application to the iTunes Store, which creates the potential for more revenue.
Sonos, the home music system folks, just announced the forthcoming Sonos ZonePlayer S5, a wireless music system that works seamlessly with the iPhone via the free Sonos Controller App to bring all the music the Internet has to offer into the home. Unlike traditional docks, you don’t have to leave your iPhone docked and out of use to enjoy music, just queue up whatever you’d like to hear and slip your phone back in your pocket while the S5 streams your tunes.
Sonos ZonePlayer S5 features: • Full control of your music experience with your iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac or Sonos Controller including your iTunes library and all of the popular online streaming services such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Siruis • Crystal-clear, room-filing sound from 2 tweeters, 2 mid-range drivers and subwoofer built in • Access to music from your iTunes library and most every online music service/internet radio station • Best-in-class wireless technology for multi-room music • Simple setup & expansion – simple to add rooms
qStatus is a one of a kind status update application that lets you tweet and update your Facebook status like never before. It is straight to the point, super fast, ultra cool and darn effective. qStatus saves you the hassle of updating your Facebook status and Twitter separately by doing both for you instantly.
-Instantly update Twitter and Facebook or either -TwitPic Support -TwitVid Support -Tweet Shrink and Tweet long -Tweet your currently playing music -Dedicate the current song your playing to your friends -Customizeable background -Tweety bird update sound
Speck launched today its completely redesigned one-piece polycarbonate SeeThru hard shell case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Expanding upon the already immensely popular SeeThru designs, these stylishly sleek patent-pending cases offer iPhone 3G and 3GS owners the ultimate defensive buffer from the abuse of the normal daily hectic lifestyle. Images of the new SeeThru cases can be found at http://www.speckproducts.com/content/seethru-for-iphone .
“If you were a fan of our initial SeeThru release for the iPhone 3G, you’ll fall head over heels in love with our new single-piece design,” says Irene Baran, CEO of Speck. “The new cases maintain the sleek looks of the iPhone while adding the simplicity of a more flexible one-piece design and extra level of comfort and grip to help keep your phone scuff and scratch free.”
The stylish and translucent, form-fitting case features all the protective benefits from the previous generation SeeThru, but has been updated to an easy-to-use single-piece design that also includes an integrated rubberized grip ring around the entire front bezel of the case for superior grip and increased shock-absorption. And true to SeeThru’s minimalist, lightweight mission, the case also protects without adding bulk and offers complete access to all controls, buttons and sensors. The new SeeThru cases come in a variety of colors to please any iPhone user, including clear, black and pink. The additional colors of aqua blue and red are available exclusively through AT&T online and retail stores. Red is also available internationally. All new SeeThru cases for iPhone 3G and 3GS are $29.95 MSRP (USD).
Symmetrix is the only application in the App Store that gives the ability to create hilarious symmetric pictures from photos yourself, your friends, family, and your favorite celebrities.
Simple and ingenious, it uses a mirror effect which creates an instantly funny and interesting symmetric image.
The Symmetrix launch will be accompanied with a photo competition. The best images in the competition will prizes like Livespeakr, Pogo stylus and iPopperz.
The TomTom Car Kit is on the US Apple Store right now for $199.95 with free shipping. The catch is that the kit is listed as not shipping for 2 to 3 weeks. If you use your iPhone as a navigation device a lot, this may be a good item to get.
The TomTom kit is expensive, but it offers a built-in speaker, TomTom maps, a docking station, and more for your money. Nav apps suck some battery life if you don’t have the iPhone plugged into the power outlet while in use.
BoxTone®, the company that developed the industry standard for the management, monitoring and support of the BlackBerry platform, today extended its mobile user management solution to manage, track and control iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and other ActiveSync-based smartphones. BoxTone v5.0 enables enterprises, governmental agencies and managed service providers (MSPs) to automatically discover and inventory all enterprise-connected smartphones, track utilization, identify threats and eliminate wasted spend. This comprehensive approach to mobility management is what IT organizations need to maximize the productivity of their cross-platform mobile workforce, while optimizing the balance of service quality, cost and risk. “With the invasion of employee-owned smartphones running on multiple mobile platforms, organizations are experiencing a new set of mobile management, compliance and cost challenges,” stated Alan Snyder, CEO, BoxTone. “Increasingly, BoxTone’s more than 230 customers worldwide had been asking us to extend our best-in-class BlackBerry platform management solution to accommodate a variety of leading smartphones. Today we responded, with BoxTone v5.0.” Aberdeen’s September 2009 research report “Mobility Management to Drive Compliance for Employee-Liable Smartphones and Lower TCO” noted that “many IT departments feel compelled to accommodate the influx of employee-liable devices because they must find some way to satisfy the insatiable hunger for mobility among users with organizational mandates to reduce capital expenditures.” While cost savings can be had by shifting device procurement and data plan payment responsibilities from the enterprise to the employee, adding significant numbers of enterprise-enabled smartphones brings unique risks and challenges. “The more smartphones connect to an enterprise, the higher the risk for lost or stolen sensitive information, and the potential for greater IT support costs,” stated Snyder. “With enterprise-enabled smartphones expected to jump from 10-15 percent today to 70-80 percent by 2012, those risks and costs are set to significantly increase. Enterprises that fail to proactively address this challenge will be run over by the chaos, costs and complexity of mobile diversity.” BoxTone v5.0 starts by proactively discovering, in real-time, more than 40 critical mobile user data points including smartphone model, smartphone ID, ownership model (employee-liable versus corporate-liable), supporting infrastructure (Mobile Server, Mail Server and wireless carrier), synchronization history and whether a smartphone is BlackBerry Enterprise Server-attached or ActiveSync-attached. Armed with full visibility to its enterprise-connected smartphones, the software’s expanded Compliance Management capabilities take over tracking and auditing of all corporate-liable and employee-liable smartphones and user activity. Benefits include the ability to rapidly identify security policy violations or threats – such as rogue or unsecured smartphones – and to confirm devices are wiped before substantial financial loss or regulatory actions ensue or IT credibility is impaired.
Philips uses a large light box that simulates a natural sunrise with light that gradually comes on starting 30 minutes before your alarm is set to go off. Philips claims the clocks are clinically proven to have an impact on the quality of awakening. After the 30-minute light period, the device can wake you to sounds or music.
Sounds the devices offer include chirping birds, gentle beep, African jungle sounds, or soft chimes. The iPod version of the device can wake you to FM radio or playlists from your iPod as well. Both versions have the FM tuner. Both versions are available now for $169.99 for the HF3480 and $199.99 for the HF3490.
Apple has approved over 100,000 applications in its App Store, according to the latest figures from App Shopper, an industry tracking firm. That number of approved apps dwarfs the number of apps offered by mobile app store competitors Android Marketplace, Windows Mobile Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and Nokia’s Ovi Store. Apple’s next closest competitor, Google’s Android Marketplace, offers a relative small 10,000 mobile apps, according to App Shopper. BlackBerry App World hosts 3040 apps.
Apple’s iPhone is quickly becoming the ebook reader of choice for many, and could steal market share from Amazon’s Kindle, according to a report from market research firm Flurry.
The iPhone and iPod Touch turned into a popular handheld gaming platform over the last year, as most of the apps released for the devices were in the games category. Even Nintendo acknowledged that iPhone games were among the reasons its DS portable gaming machine under-performed in sales.
And now it appears it is the Amazon Kindle’s turn to take a beating, as book applications for iPhone exceeded the popularity of games apps in the last four months, according the Flurry report. In September, iPhone books (some running on Kindle for iPhone) overtook games for the first time, while one in every five new apps in the App Store in October were books.
To promote RingtoneStudio for iPhone, PocketMac will be giving away one factory-unlocked iPhone 3G in a contest starting today. Second and third place winners will win a $50 or $15 iTunes gift card, respectively. The contest ends November 30, 2009 and is based around the software, PocketMac RingtoneStudio for iPhone.
“We want to get people to try and then talk about our great ringtone creation software, PocketMac RingtoneStudio for iPhone,” said Tim Goggin, VP Of Sales & Marketing. “The more people help us promote this software, the cooler the prizes get.”
Different levels of prizes will be available to contestants based on how many copies of RingtoneStudio are sold before the end of contest. In the beginning, three $15 iTunes gift card are available to win. If sales of RingtoneStudio exceed 100 copies sold during the contest period, two $50 iTunes gift card will able to win. If sales of RingtoneStudio top 250 sales, one lucky winner will take away a legally, factory-unlocked iPhone.
Goggin continued, “These iPhones are the rarest of rare. In most countries, iPhones are only offered by one or two carriers. But in some areas, Apple ships these phones to the consumer unlocked. That is, they can be used with a SIM card from any carrier. This is one of these phones.”
Legally-unlocked iPhones require no “jailbreaking”, the process of modifying an iPhone to work with a different carrier. Instead, these iPhones are programmed to accept any SIM card.
Also, they can be updated to the latest versions of the iPhone operating system without the hassles involved in updating jailbroken phones.
The software at the heart of the contest, RingtoneStudio for iPhone, was designed to produce an unlimited quantity of ringtones - avoiding Apple’s 99 cent-per-ringtone fee. It creates ringtones from any unprotected music format or from a variety of QuickTime-friendly video formats.
This contest runes through November 30, 2009. RingtoneStudio 2.0 for iPhone is available now for $19.95.
The vendor claims they’ll be able to ship the OEM part within 5-12 days, as well as that they have “final pictures” of the iPhone 4th-gen back cover that they’ll be adding to the site soon. As for the midboard itself, it’s said to be 113.5 x 57.3 mm which makes it slightly shorter and slightly narrower than the current iPhone 3GS.
Normally we’d be indecently sceptical about any leaked Apple parts – in fact we are now – but as Gizmodo points out, China Ontrade were spot on when it came to the iPhone 3G’s display assembly. They had access to that part a month ahead of Apple’s official launch; that raises the question of when this fourth-gen device might drop, considering a new iPhone handset isn’t expected on the market for another eight months. Keep a lookout for it maybe coming to the market a little sooner.
That’s right, we said it — and we’re not taking it back. The iPhone may be the greatest handheld surfing device ever to rock the mobile Web, and a fabulous media player to boot. It may be the highest-rated mobile phone on CNET UK, rocking the pockets of half of our crack editorial team. It’s certainly the touchscreen face that launched a thousand apps. But as an actual call-making phone, it’s rubbish, and we aim to prove it.
Check out more of what they have to say at…CNet UK
The Apple rumor mill claims that work is underway todevelop a ‘world-mode’ iPhone capable of operating on both CDMA and GSM/UMTS networks. World mode. Rumors also persist that Verizon will begin to carry the iPhone in 2010. All of these rumors suggest that the AT&T honeymoon with the iPhone is nearing an end.
A ‘wordl-mode’ iPhone could signal the end of exclusivity and be bad news for AT&TThese are just rumors at this point, but when a rumor is both pervasive and tenacious there is usually a reason. That gives AT&T some reason to be concerned. Without iPhone exclusivity, what does AT&T bring to the table that would entice customers to switch to, or stick with the wireless provider?
I think it’s about time that they expand to different networks so the consumer has more choice.
Protection One, Inc. (Nasdaq: PONE), one of the nation’s leading providers of security systems to homes and businesses, has developed an iPhone™ application that allows users to access their security panels and receive real-time security updates from their iPhone or iPod Touch®.
With the eSecure application from Protection One, users can confirm that their security system is armed while on vacation or turn off the alarm while at work to let in cleaning crews or other contractors. When armed, the eSecure system will send text or e-mail messages when motion is detected, a particular door is opened, in the event of a flood, if high carbon-monoxide levels are recorded and even when a liquor, medicine cabinet, safe or other sensitive area is accessed.
This technology is designed to offer peace of mind to users whenever they are outside of the home or business via real-time wireless access. Protection One is the first national provider of monitored security to offer this application.
“No one wants to spend a vacation or business trip worrying about leaving the garage door open or if the security alarm is set,” says Protection One President and CEO Richard Ginsburg. “This application puts security at your fingertips and keeps you connected, even when you’re away.”
The application maintains safety and security with multiple layers of password protection. A standard Protection One keypad code is required for access to the eSecure keypad, which is neither stored on the device nor visible to anyone looking at the screen.
The eSecure iPhone application, which is free with the eSecure service subscription and available for download now from Protection One at the iPhone Apps Store, is compatible with all iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Working in tandem with a Protection One security system, the iPhone application is customizable to deliver peace of mind every time you leave the home or office.
Judging from reader comments around the web, there are a lot of cellphone owners in America locked into Verizon contracts who would buy an iPhone in a minute if they didn’t have to switch carriers to get it (me included!).
Verizon has made it pretty clear that it would cut a deal with Apple, were it not for a couple of impediments: 1) the contract that makes AT&T the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier, and 2) the fact that Verizon’s network (based on CDMA2000 technology) is incompatible with Apple’s smartphone (which uses W-CDMA (UMTS)).
The first roadblock — AT&T’s contract — is set to expire next year, according to a widely cited 2008 USA Today article that included an interview with chairman Randall Stephenson. (Stephenson declined to comment on the details of the contract.)
The second barrier could also disappear were Apple to build a new iPhone that is compatible with both AT&T and Verizon’s networks.
Last week, AppleInsider reported on rumors that Apple may be doing just that. Its source was a leaked OTR Global report, based on unnamed sources in Apple’s Taiwanese supply chain, that said Apple was making a “worldmode” phone using a new hybrid chip from Qualcomm.
Today, Ambient Industries (www.ambientindustries.com), a mobile application software company, debuts flook (www.flook.it), in the Apple Store. Offered for free, Flook is a location browser that lets users discover and share the world around them. Flook’s design is being lead by a team of four co-creators with deep programming, entrepreneurial and creative backgrounds – Roger Nolan and Jane Sales founders of Symbian, led the teams creating that company’s comms and kernel respectively. Tristan Brotherton has deep web and media expertise and Dave Jennings’ background in machine intelligence and location services informed flook’s servers. Together, they have built an imagination-centric company, shrugging off the typical corporate structure, enabling the creativity and wonder that has gone into flook’s world of robots, color and whimsical interface.
“Flook is about serendipity, being lucky and finding something really great nearby, whether it is a beautiful building, a great tapas spot, some cool street art or a ridiculous sale,” says Roger Nolan. Flook’s design marries the photo, some text and the location and adds in a conversation to capture a moment that lives on. Jane Sales adds, “Now you can browse the world around you as if you were flipping through an ultra-local magazine made just for you – and then chat about it. Flook is the first mobile application to enable true location-based messaging.”
Apple fans and developers keep their ear close to the ground to find the new tidbits on coming Apple products from all sorts of sources. Often those sources include usage logs and deeply buried profiles in updates and software from Apple. Developer Pandav has discovered a usage record for an iPhone model that has not been announced.
Apple has seen about 60,000 units of iPhones sold in South Korea on its debut on Saturday, which is pretty good as the nation has already reported 400,000 smartphones sales in the third quarter.
The number, though far away from the one million sales in the U.S. for the iPhone 3GS, has already been a great success compared to the estimated 5,000 units sold during the first week in China.
The handset is available through KT Corp, the second largest carrier in Korea.
“We’re hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea,” Yang Hyun-mi, KT’s chief strategy officer, wascited as saying. Hyun-mi also noted that smartphones only control one percent of the mobile market in the nation.
Back in October, Slashgear mentioned that Apple fans in Guam would be able to get their hands on the iPhone on GTA TeleGuam. At the time, we didn’t know key details like how much and exactly when the iPhone would land on the island. GTA TeleGuam announced all the details today and pre-orders are underway.
Subscribers will be able to get the 8GB iPhone 3G for $99.95, the iPhone 3GS 16GB for $199.95, and the iPhone 3GS 32GB for $299.95. All three flavors of the iPhone will hit the carrier on December 11 with pre-orders starting today.
On December 12, the iPhone will be available in certain retail locations like the Andersen Air Force Base and others. Users will be required to get a new plan and contract to get the iPhone at the stated prices with the cheapest plan costing $69.90 per month for 500 minutes and unlimited data.
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