We all know Google isn’t a search engine company, they’re a company that makes googzillions of dollars monetizing search (and trying to monetize other things) via their AdSense advertising platform. For iPhones, this was previously constrained to the browser window of Mobile Safari (or Chrome Lite for Android users). Now, however, the Official Google Blog announces:
AdSense for Mobile Applications allows developers to earn revenue by displaying text and image ads in their iPhone and Android applications. For our beta launch, we’ve created a site where developers can learn more about the AdSense for Mobile Applications program, see answers to frequently asked questions and sign up to participate in our beta. Advertisers can also learn about the benefits of advertising in mobile applications.
Advertising lets Google and others supply lots of free services to users. Will it be as successful embedded in apps as it is in the browser? Developers, are you interested in Google AdSense monetizing your apps? Users, would you put up with Google advertising if it meant cheap or free apps?
iSupply gets a lots of headlines, like this one from Reuters, guestimating the raw component costs of popular gadgets like the iPhone 3GS. And good for them.
Media literacy 101, however, demands we remind again that the iPhone 3GS didn’t pop into consumers’ hands fully formed from a Star Trek transporter or the toes of the frost-giant Ymir (Bing it). It cost money to research and develop both hardware and software, to design and prototype, to test and certify, and it cost money to manufacture, to ship, to stock, to advertise, and to sell.
Even if we stick to iSupply’s guesstimates of raw component costs, to paraphrase Aaron Sorkin’s hyperbole, while the second iPhone 3GS may have cost $179, the first one cost a billion dollars.
So take that $179 number you’ll see all over the net with a grain of salt before you start knocking on the door at 1 Infinite Loop demanding your iPhone 3GS at “cost”.
[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip, image via rapidrepair.com]
Our sibling site Android Central is all over the new HTC Hero announcement — the latest Android smartphone and one that looks decidedly different from its G1 predecessor.
We weren’t exactly fond of the G1’s user experience, but did lust after their notification system and push Gmail. Does this latest entry, with its Senses UI, up the ante? And should Apple be worried yet, or is Microsoft and Windows Mobile still the low-hanging fruit in Google’s sights?
iPhone 3.0 features Calendar Subscriptions, where you can enter the URL for a shared calendar and near-instantly add it to your iPhone.
That’s all well and good to share a family or business calendar, but what about more wide-ranging ones? What about national holidays, religious events, movie release dates, sports team schedules? Luckily, Apple’s already made this simple for Mac OS X iCal users, and even more luckily it works just as simply for iPhone 3.0 users as well.
Steve Ellington from the theautomaticfilmmaker.com let us know that he’d shot the above music video entirely on the new iPhone 3GS. While Ellington had fun filming the little robot, he was also “quite impressed with the camera.”
CBS4 in South Florida must also have been impressed. They claimed the “new iPhone good enough for the evening news” when a producer shot a segment entirely on Apple’s latest handset as well.
While RED likely has nothing to fear — yet! — citizen journalism and individual creativity are likely in for a huge, Jobsian boom!
Apple Insider reports that, based on a Piper Jaffray survey:
12% of consumers who visited a retail store this past weekend to make their iPhone 3G S purchase said they were replacing a BlackBerry handset, the latest sign that Apple continues to make headway against rival Research in Motion in the high-stakes smartphone market.
28% of iPhone 3GS said buh-bye to their old carriers and hello to AT&T as well, proving once again just how valuable the iPhone is to new customer acquisition…
A few days ago we mentioned Gokivo + Yahoo! Maps had made it into the App Store. Now it’s joined by:
AT&T Navigator [free - iTunes Link] provides an iPhone front end to AT&T’s $9.99/month subscription service.
MobileNavigator Europe ($94.99 – iTunes link) features Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, Speed Assistant and Day & Night Mode component as well as the opportunity, to show POIs along the route. (See YouTube for the gist)
What’s interesting from a user-perspective is the ranger of options we’ll likely be seeing: either free or $0.99 up front and ongoing subscriptions, or more expensive up front (will $100 be the price point?) and no subscriptions — though will we have to wonder about charges for updated maps eventually?
Disclaimer – Neither TiPb nor I take any responsibility for any problems/issues/bricking/etc. that may occur while using this software to modify your iPhone. Please be aware of what you are doing. This will NOT work with iPhone 3GS.
There has been a lot of buzz going on in the forums regarding jailbreaking the iPhone 3.0 software lately, and a lot of questions to go along with it!. Today we’re going to take a deeper look at the exact steps you have to take to get your iPhone 3G with 3.0 jailbroken on your Mac.
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