From the land of the rising sun, and the trend of mono-sentence-ic press statements, Softbank has announced that they will be carrying the iPhone in Japan with — wait for it — details to follow later!
Long the [out-of-wedlock] stepchildren of the iTunes experience, Canada and the UK got some small measure of love a while back with the addition of TV shows, albeit primarily local and cable fare, like CBC and BBC respectively. But where were our movies? What about our (pricey) Apple Take 2 rentals?
Today Apple finally bestowed cinema on her Majesties loyal subjects, home and commonwealth alike:
Your favourite Hollywood movies are now available to download from the iTunes Store and watch instantly. Rent new releases for just $4.99 and other library titles for just $3.99, or buy movies and own them forever. Sit back and enjoy the show on your computer, take it on the road with your iPod—or view movies in stunning high definition with Apple TV.
In Canada, purchased movies seem to range from $9.99 to an expensive $19.99 for new releases (hey, studios, seen the power of le loonie lately?) while in the UK, rentals will fetch a premium £2.49 to £3.49, and purchases, £6.99 and £10.99.
Like the US, HD Movies are reserved exclusively for direct-to-Apple TV rental (thanks Big Media!), but it seems we might just get to enjoy them for 48 hrs. instead of the miserly 24 in the US.
One drawback? Canada already has steep data rates and stingy data caps (low end accounts offer a paltry 1-2GB a month, with high overage charges). Unlimited accounts can also be slower (low end toping out at 1.5 Mbps). Add to that the potential for cable and telecos to throttle what might seem to them to be competing offerings (to Rogers and Bell on-demand or PPV services, for example), and it will make for some interesting politics.
While the telcos may argue that the post office doesn’t deliver Netflix for free, it’s not like end users see the shipping charges either. It may end up that Apple has to deal with the Big Pipe devils same way they do with Hollywood and the carriers…
UPDATE: I had to reset the settings (not restore to factory, just reset) on the Apple TV in order to get it to offer up some movies, which meant reconnecting it to sync and stream from iTunes.
iPhonetic Legorganisms (iPhorgs?!) took a giant leap towards eventual world domination with the release of BattleBricks first iPhone Robot. Hacking together an iPhone with Lego’s NXT Robot kit, combined with Apple’s Safari browser, a little Java, Google web code, and lot of Azimovian know how, (eventual Skynet inventor?) Will Gorman presents a “freaking sweet” demo:
Check the read link for the step-by-step instructions…
Exchange ActiveSync and the AppStore are gimmes. Enterprise features are checked. Beta leaks are everywhere. And .Mac to Mobile Me — Don’t get us started! But what else will we get? MMS? Blogging? Mobile iChat? Universal home remote control? And what about the Holy Grail… cut and paste?! What do YOU think?
To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 2.0 software and services rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”
Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all.
Five days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.
A lot of people have criticized the fact that there isn’t a Mobile iChat or any other Instant Messaging program on the iPhone. From a technological standpoint, there is absolutely no reason for it to be missing. Also, an IM client is a common offering among smartphones and feature phones alike. A IM program is often very useful to quickly stay in touch with your contacts and well, for ‘instant’ communication.
The Web App JiveTalk from Beejive, a company who makes the similar program and uber-popular JiveTalk for Blackberry, is the answer for those who need a chat program but aren’t ready to jailbreak their iPhones. How does it perform? Should you give it a go?
We’ve gone over just how bad the Mobile Me brand sounds to us a couple of times already (almost as bad as this week’s service!), but now reports surface that there may just be something better hidden beneath the bad label:
MobileMe is slated to include a host of new features, which we alluded to early in May; in addition, there will be new web interfaces for all aspects of MobileMe — calendars will look just like iCal, Contacts will look just like they do in Address Book, etc. This is similar to the way .Mac Webmail works today, though we’ve heard that the new interfaces will be much snazzier (yes, that’s a technical term).
Delivery estimate? Late June/July timeframe, hooking into the iPhone 2.0 and not only the newly released OS X 10.5.3, but potentially Windows as well.
Confession: The real reason I can’t wait for the iPhone 3G to drop? So that at long last the rest of the smartphone industry will have something new to copy!
Today’s offender is the Samsung SGH-i900, and boy does it run the iClone checklist: rounded rectangular slab? Check. Glossy black facade? Check. Silvered trim? Check. Job dropping interface or any sense of pride in innovation? D’oh! Not even close.
Sister site WMExperts.com offers up the usual suspects specs:
[O]ne of the upcoming batch of über-Windows Mobile phones - 6.1 Pro, 240×400 (weird) screen, 1500mAh battery, FM Radio, TV out.
[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Tell us what you think the iPhone 3G will look like -- or comment on any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Note that you must post with a valid and real email address so we can send you your prize -- no switching!]
Darth Vader black and Paris Hilton thin? Candy red fatty with Kevin Rose cam up front? High-def white with chrome button trim? What do YOU think?
To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G form factor rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”
Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all.
Six days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.
After claiming 27% of US smartphone market share in the last quarter of 2007, the iPhone has slipped to 20% for the first quarter of 2008. Where have all the iPhone buyers gone? Apparently to RIM and Palm (why!) who saw their market share increase in the same period. For Palm, the gains can be credited to the rise in popularity of the Centro and for RIM, well no one doubts their powerhouse status around these parts.
There could be plenty of reasons why iPhone market share has slipped. For one, the shortages could be a big part of the puzzle here, people aren’t buying iPhones because there aren’t any iPhones to buy. Another reason could possibly be educated consumers who realize that the iPhone 3G is imminent thus delaying their purchase. Not to kick the iPhone when it’s down, but the price and carrier-locked nature of the iPhone could also play a role in its diminished market share.
Regardless, the iPhone is still driving smartphone interest and increasing the market’s sales and its competitors are posting lower market share than a year ago. My personal take? I want to see device-by-device sales numbers. The iPhone is a one man army against multiple fronts from RIM and Palm yet still manages to be more than competitive. Narrow down the numbers and specifying the models could paint an entirely different picture.
Or maybe not. iPhone 3G to the rescue? What do you think?
The .Mac system status last night and this morning shares the news: RIM apparently isn’t the only company to suffer outages. .Mac had a bit of a problem last night (as reported at TUAW, .Mac has never been reliable enough for yours-truly). This has, of course, set off a frenzy of speculation that the Mobile Me / Just Me rebranding of the services was imminent — or at least getting prepared for. Maybe as service was restored this morning it was restored on Google’s servers?
Dare to dream, friend.
100% of members were unable to access mail using an IMAP client. Normal service has been restored. 5.30.2008 :: 22:00 - 01:00 PST Due to scheduled maintenance from 10:00PM to 1:00AM PST, Some .Mac members could not access .Mac Mail. Normal service has been restored. We apologize for any inconvenience.
We righteously and from a position of absolute certainty mocked the “Mobile Me” moniker and asked y’all to come up with something better. We’re giving the $50 Phone different iPhone accessory gift cart to raymie for this post’s hilarious suggestion: “iTinerant.” “iTinerant” may not be something Appe is likely to use, but after an email outage (and back-atcha high-fives amongst CrackBerry addicts), we need a little levity this morning.
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
