It’s WWDC 2009. Steve or Phil or Scott or Joz or whomever is handling the heavy lifting for the iPhone 3.0 section and release-date announcement smiles and says — “There’s one more thing…
“Last year we showed you Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. Nobody expected it, but we were blown away by the reception. This year, we’re announcing BlackBerry Connect support for the iPhone. With this, not only can you chat with your team over BlackBerry Messenger, but you can push data right from your Corporate BES. And to tell us more about it, ladies and gentlemen, here’s CrackBerry Kevin the Co-CEO of Research in Motion–”
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It does to me. I know it does to Kevin. No way in Hull (it’s in Ontario — look it up!) this happens, right? It’s not like Apple would ever do business with a competitor such as RIM… or Microsoft… or Google…
Would Apple even want BlackBerry Connect — a software layer that emulates varying amounts of BlackBerry functionality on other devices like Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile — on the iPhone? They’ve certainly got some degree of business integration now with the aforementioned Microsoft ActiveSync. And from RIM’s side, while they have licensed BlackBerry Connect in the past, it’s not like they’ve been putting any emphasis on it in the present, have they?
Aside from letting iPhone users instachat more seamlessly with BlackBerry users — dogs and cats living together, as Dieter would say — is there anything really in it for consumers either? It wouldn’t give the iPhone a keyboard or the BlackBerry the ability to run more than a handful of tiny, on-memory apps. And, instead of breaking down more proprietary communication protocols, it would just be extending PIN the way it’s already extended ActiveSync.
Still, crazier things have happened. What if this did? Would you want it?
You’ll want to stay tuned to the Smartphone Experts family of sites next week – we’ll be live at the CTIA Wireless convention, bringing you all the latest from every manufacturer on all of our sites. Will Android finally have its coming out party? Will Palm finally tell us when the Pre is being released? Will the AT&T Nokia E71 ever get official? Whatever happens, we’ll give you the scoop.
It’s interesting to see how developers try to monetize their work in the iTunes App Store. With the downward pressure towards $0.99 or free apps, many turn to advertising to make up the difference, but users are getting increasingly oblivious to advertising at the same time.
i.TV, as part of their recent update, has tried to make advertising more compelling by making it more interactive. It’s an interesting strategy:
: i.TV introduces the world’s first “shakable” ad. This limited release “Shake-down 2 Get Down” campaign from Dockers features Dufon, from the dance expressionist group “Circle of Fire.” When you see the ad pop up, just shake your device to make Dufon dance!
Even if that loses its appeal after the first few times, it will likely still make a stronger impact than static text or banners. Can developers keep the pace of advertising innovation in line with that of the apps themselves? That remains a question.
The i.TV update also includes a dedicated tab for Comcast subscribers, the world’s first “shakable” advertisement, AT&T U-verse listings and major performance improvements.
Cheese on bread, I find the concept of this game irie enough, though the lack of articulation in the eponymous character… nothing a go so. Shouldn’t a Rasta Monkey be a wee bit easier now star?
Rasta Monkey is set in the jungle of Jamdown. The gameplay is focused on a happy Rastafarian
monkey who swings around and grabs onto branches to move his way through different jungle
environments. Using monkey-swinging skills, players must snag some delicious fruit along the
way to score points and move to different levels.
If anyone has tried it out, let us know what you think. Nice and crisp, or go back a yard?
You remember those old flip books where you could mix and match the head, body, and legs from various animals and such? Well, preschool pals with Henry and Hailey takes this idea and turns it in to an app for kids on the iPhone.
When playing this app, the first thing you can do is go through and look at the various “preschool pals” as they are supposed to appear. They include things like a fireman, policeman, robot, ballerina, etc. You can look at each image, and hit the play button to have each one say something (just a sentence or two). Keep reading Pre-School Pals Forum Review…
My Beagle
My Beagle is a “create a dog” app aimed at young kids. The concept of this app is simple – you can create a picture of a dog with various…accessories (for lack of a better word) from a wide list of options. Starting the app is simple – you simply click on the play button and get brought to a blank slate with a generic beagle image. From there, using the dial on the left, you can choose various accessories or attributes – collars, food bowls, background, eye shape, etc. You get to design a beagle to your liking.
When creating your masterpiece, you choose each of the categories of accessory, and then can choose from different images by sliding a button left or right to show the options. For example, with background images, you can choose from some butterflies, some birds, some trees, etc. The wide variety of options means that there are plenty of ways to create a unique masterpiece on your iPhone. Keep reading My Beagle Forum Review…
Remember that Apple patent for biometric and other advanced authentication schemes we mentioned yesterday? Well, Engadget took a closer look and it seems like the artwork used in the patent features none other than a few of everyone’s favorite Jailbreak apps, including Installer, SMBPrefs, and the iWood theme.
So is Apple trying to sneak in some Jailbreak patents, or did a crafty draftsman just do it for the lulz?
Wow, so I’m guessing you are all probably really sick of hearing about the 3.0 software. Ok, I really don’t believe that but you never know. So how about some jailbreak conversation? You say you’re still on the fence on whether or not to jailbreak your iPhone even after ourTop 5 Must Have Jailbreak AppsPart 1 and Part 2? After reading this you should have hopefully made your decision one way or another. So buckle up and I will take you for a ride… on the wild jailbreak side.
***All of the following apps can be downloaded via Cydia on your Jailbroken iPhone.
According to our sources, the 3.0 beta still has some stability and speed issues, so that makes these results that much more impressive. While the overall average gives the iPhone 3.0 beta a 300 percent speed advantage, some of the individual tests show 6x, 8x, or even 11x improvements—the bitwise “AND” function even runs 16x faster than in the current version of Mobile Safari.
Should make the release version of the new, Nitro-powered Mobile Safari 3.0 fairly impressive, come summer! Bring on them multi-app Facebook pages, the iPhone will be ready! (Joking… a bit.)
No, not unlocking the iPhone from AT&T (JAR!), unlocking the iPhone so you can use it. Slide to unlock, passcode unlock, that kind of unlock. Okay, now if you’re still reading, Apple Insider has found some patent filings that suggest Apple is exploring things like biometrics (i.e. it reads your fingerprint while you slide to unlock), facial recognition (i.e. uses the camera to analyze who you are/might be) and pattern matching (i.e. choose unique shape combinations as a passcode). But it doesn’t stop there:
Apple goes so far as to suggest the possibility of recognizing the user’s distinctive voice or even collecting DNA samples to recognize a user’s genetic sequence. Biometrics could also be context-sensitive and detect the shape of a user’s ear before allowing a call to go through, for example.
