February 2009: Monthly Archive

Don’t remember the iPhone App Store PodCaster-gate sega? We envy you. Long story short, Apple rejected PodCaster for duplicating iTunes functionality (downloading podcasts), then added that functionality to iTunes with iPhone OS 2.2. A short time back, a newly stripped down (and less user-friendly — thanks Apple!) version of PodCaster finally made it into the App Store as RSS Player.

And for today, it’s FREE [iTunes link]!

(Thanks to forum superstar Jamesus for pointing this out!)

We’ve heard rumors about this before, but now the New York Times (via MacRumors) is pretty much coming right out and saying it. Apple was ready to give up their uniform pricing model ($0.99 per song) over a year ago but they wanted not only DRM-free licensing in return, but over-the-air (cellular) iPhone downloads. It seems many, including Apple and the music industry, think that’s the Next Big Thing.

Still, things were tense down to the last few moments before the big Macworld 2009 announcement:

All the labels agreed except Sony Music. Its chairman, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz, wanted the pricing to go into effect right after the announcement, while Mr. Jobs wanted a longer time horizon. According to a person briefed on the telephone call, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz and Mr. Jobs had a heated exchange by phone on Christmas Eve. Eventually, Sony gave in and agreed to a longer waiting period.

With Steve Jobs (the smartest man in music?) on leave of absence, however, don’t think things will get any easier for the historically out-of-touch music industry. Insiders report that others inside Apple, including iTunes VP Eddy Cue, follow Steve Jobs’ line.

Apple and music aside, what does this mean for — you know — the end users? How important is downloading music over the cell network to you? Will it make you buy more music? And will some songs being cheaper, and others more expensive, change you buying habits as well?

[UPDATE: Erica Sadun of Ars Technica weighs in on Crackulous, and the humor of pirating pirate software... - Rene]

Let me start out by saying none of us here at TiPb condone any type of piracy. You think you deserve to get paid at the end of the day for your work? So do developers and their hungry children.

That being said, Apple must be saying Uh-Oh right about now. Crackulous, which is now available via Cydia, enables you to strip the protection off most apps from the App Store. What this simply means is if a single person purchases an app, he or she can put the app out there — for free — for anyone who has a Jailbroken iPhone to grab.

Of course, it was simply a matter of time before someone in the Jailbreak community came up with an app such as Crackulous, and we can just imagine how many new Jailbreak artists there will be because of this new app.

You can pretty much count on the fact that Apple is already addressing this issue with a FairPlay (their DRM that wraps all iTunes App Store apps) fix that will turn up in the next software update. Another cat and mouse game has just been born.

[Via Engadget Mobile, thanks to themurdock for the tip]

TiPb has previously mentioned both Wobble and iJiggles as rivals in the… er… boob bouncing space which we gather is rapidly following the inglorious fart app trend to the top. Only neither Wobble nor iJiggles are actually called by those names anymore. Why not? It seems there’s some escalation going on:

Wobble became Wobble-3D-jiggles and iJiggles became iJiggles-3D-Wobble (though they may have reverted back, or changed again, or… who knows… by the time you read this), and now the only thing that’s really bouncing are the catty/comedic letters and posts back and forth between the developers.

Hopefully the press outweighs the silliness for all?

What a great start to 2009! Net Applications (a leader in tracking website applications) has just released their monthly survey for January 2009. The news? The iPhone accounts for 0.48% of all Internet traffic! This is amazing considering that the Mac has 9.93%. Compared to one month ago, the iPhone’’s share of Internet traffic has grown by 9.09%.

This is quite an achievement for the iPhone since it is only available on one carrier in the use and limited to one model. What is particularly interesting about this is that Windows Mobile, Google’s G1, Symbian and BlackBerry are rolled together into the “other” category that accounts for 0.45% of Internet traffic. 

(via Apple 2.0)

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Let’s get started, after the break! Read the rest of this entry »

The continuing evolution of Twitter as a mainstream celebrity interactive communication platform powered by Apple’s revolutionary internet device, the iPhone 3G, and awesome client side apps Twitterfon and Tweetie, or the end of all things geeky-fringe and techno-pure? Or just a cheap excuse for us to link-bait some celebrities (who are not Stephen Fry) using iPhone’s and tweeting on Superbowl Sunday?

Yes!

Does it matter to us if celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore use the iPhone? Do we care if they increasingly make their presence felt on Twitter? And does their choice of iPhone Twitter client influence our own preference? And either way, what does it tell us about the iPhone, Twitter, and the celebrities who choose to use them? (You can answer below, or on Twitter from your favorite iPhone client for extra irony points!)

Every week, the TWiT.tv network produces MacBreak Weekly netcast (podcast). Every week, the panel on MacBreak Weekly announces their “picks of the week”. This week, noted photographer Scott Bourne’s pick was a $15,000 iPhone accessory: the Mamiya DL28 Digital Camera System.

Okay, technically it’s a lot more than just an accessory. It’s a professional caliber digital camera, but Bourne chose it because it… works with the iPhone, with full multi-touch support!

Reportedly, you’ll be able to view pictures as they are taken (similar to how a laptop-tethered solution works) and perhaps do some manipulation of the images as well. Not sure if it’s a WiFi/Bonjour solution like the Apple Remote app, but seeing the iPhone’s interface potential being increasingly leveraged by technology like the Mamiya, SONOS, etc. is very exciting.

And, Bourne also informed us this was only the second most expensive iPhone accessory he’s come across. The most expensive, currently, is an iPhone compatible Mercedes Benz…

Anyone breaking out their American Express Black Card for a little shopping spree? And for those more budget conscious among us, what other devices would you like to control with your iPhone? Your Roomba? Your fridge? Let us know!