To see the above image in all immenseness and glory, head on over to our sister site PreCentral.net. And yeah, AT&T did draw first blood a while back with their own internal comparison document, so we’re really more amused than amazed by this one, even if the categories chosen for the above comparison are a little on the weighted side. (If they’d chosen desktop syncing, massive integrated media service, 35,000+ current-gen apps, etc. things might have ended up a little differently…). Beyond the talking points, more details have also emerged:
We can also confirm that until you set up your Palm Profile, the Pre won’t work at all. You’ll also need to accept Google Mobile’s terms of service in order to get GPS services working properly. Multiple Exchange accounts are a go with full push support and the ability to search through Global Addresses on the server – but inviting attendees isn’t up yet.
Also, DocsToGo will be built in but read-only. Full version, with editing will be available to those on the “Now Network” at some time that is “later”…
Wondering what you may have missed this week in the smartphone world? The Best of SPE is here to ease your mind and get you caught up.
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This time, same as the last time, the initial, stupefying rejection of e-book reader Eucalyptus has been followed up by web outrage and now App Store acceptance. (Can we officially call these the 4 stages of App Store grief’ing now?) From developer Montgomerie’s blog (via Macworld):
Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store. [$9.99 - iTunes link]
Eucalyptus provides a pretty amazing UI through which to access all the free content at Project Gutenberg. If you enjoy classic literature and drop-dead gorgeous iPhone interaction, check it out and let us know what you think!
Apple Insider picked up a story from The Charlotte Observer that involved a lot of stuff about tax breaks and revitalizing certain counties, but we have to confess, all we really saw was:
Apple building $1 Billion Server Farm
Yeah, that’s like 1 dollar for every app download. Which made us wonder, is this building out and diversifying the location of infrastructure to help support the growth of existing “cloud-based” services like iTunes (including the App Store) and MobileMe, or does Apple have yet more on the agenda?
iTunes and MobileMe took a pounding when Apple released iPhone 2.0 last year. Turning on Push Notification for millions of users this year, never mind pie-in-the-sky future rumors of adding on-device movie and TV downloads for the iPhone will no doubt require the phatest of pipes. Could this also be just the beginning of Apple’s server farm planting as well? Or is it just a much-less-exciting redundant off-site mirror for current Cupertino based systems?
FLIP Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!
If Tetris and Bejeweled were to have a child, they would give birth to FLIP. This is a puzzle game of flipping and tilting your iPhone around to manipulate gems. There are 3 very distinct game modes: standard, puzzle, and speed.
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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.
So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!
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Reuters (via Ars) has word from Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s mobility and consumer business:
“Right now we continue to study what is the best thing that is available, not just from an iPhone point of view, but what you can do to stimulate additional demand,”
“Our business is to sell services,” he said, adding that AT&T doesn’t make money from the sale of devices like the iPhone, which it subsidizes heavily
“We view Apple as a strategic partner for us, a very good partner to have now and into the future,”
Like the old joke goes, if you ask someone if they’ve considered something — bang! — you just made them consider it. So, yeah, AT&T has considered making iPhone data cheaper… but we still don’t know if they’ll actually do anything about it.
Boy Genius and their stealthy squad of tele-shinobi have emerged with juicy details on the Canadian carrier Rogers and their next gen iPhone plans:
iPhone — ETA: unknown (July/August), outright: not allowed, 3-year: TBD. Of note, Rogers will launch the new iPhone on the same day that it lifts off here in the US. Purchases will be limited to one iPhone per customer on opening day and there will be active demos on display in stores. Also of note, Rogers expects to have substantially more iPhones on hand this time around so as not to run into the same stock issues as with the iPhone 3G launch.
Last year’s launch raised cross-country protests over the then-exorbitantly high data rates in Canada, which caused Rogers to temporarily offer a $30/6GB plan which has since disappeared. With AT&T considering lower rates for the iPhone, is there a chance in Hull Rogers would do likewise?
Curiouser and crazier is our motto of the moment, as we get what could be our third (3rd!) carrier leak of the day, following the T-Mobile Austria faux pas highlight an iPhone 32GB and the Vodafone Australia early EOL notice for the 16GB.
This one, according to PhoneArena.com, comes courtesy of and AT&T, which — if accurate — is offering to take in your as yet non-existent iPhone 32GB and give you $355.00 towards a trade in for last year’s BlackBerry Bold.
Okay…
Unsubstantiated rumor? Check. First time source? Check. Friend who wants to remain nameless? Check. That’s it then it’s crazy iPhone screenshot time!
The above come from Kwame Jones via Ars Technica and while I’m perfectly willing to believe Apple would extend their on-device music and podcast (including video podcast) download service to include movies and TV shows, and that we’d get early warning by way of leaked screenshots, I just can’t bring myself to believe this part of the story:
This revelation, (again at least to me) comes by way of an advertisement in the new ad supported version of the app Twitterfon released on 5/15/09. Three ads, stumbled upon by a geeky friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of the powerful arms of the Apple legal department, scrolling across the top of the app were for ‘iTunes Movies’, ‘iTunes TV’ and ‘iTunes Movie Rentals’.
Could Apple accidentally post content pre-official release? Sure, happens to everyone. But to advertise it through a network placement pre-release? Not since Steve Jobs walked the MobileMe hallways with a flamethrower, I’d wager.
If the service is for real, AT&T would no doubt impose the usual 10MB cap on 3G downloads, though Wi-Fi would work. 3G streaming, like with SlingPlayer Mobile, might just bring the network down like the towers of paper antenna it’s thus far proven to be.
Ifs, ands, and buts, aside, would you want on-device downloads for your TV and movies?
