The iPhone doesn’t have a user-changeable battery. To some that was a non-starter. To others, that was a call to action. Enter the iPhone external battery charger. We’ve seen them in several forms now, from built-in cases like the Mophie Juice Pack to plug-in units like the RichardSolo 1800 for iPhone.
TiPb had a chance to meet with the very gracious Richard Thalheimer at Macworld, who shared his enthusiasm for the RichardSolo 1800 and asked us to give it a try. Seeing as how, between email, twitter, blogging, texting, and calling, I was draining our iPhones near dry, I was more than happy to.
So how did it do? Read on after the break!
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The inimitable iJustine has tastily blog snacked about an App Store goodie named frostyplace (iTunes / $0.99), a Japanese RSS reader that by-the-way works around the iPhone’s limitation of only allowing Emoji (the massive emoticon collection used in Japan that adds to smiley face things like panda bear, train station, and mountain) on it’s official Japanese carrier.
Basically, you download and install the app, use it to browse some Japanese RSS feeds (i had to do it for a couple minutes, exiting and re-doing it 3 times), and then the Emoji option will miraculously appear in your settings and you’re golden.
Check out her site for the details and instructions, but I tried it and it worked for me. Let us know how you do!
Roland dropped us a note about this improvised iPhone stand he whipped together with nothing but several pencils, rubber bands, and a needful dream. He put it together so he could enjoy a little landscape video.
Check out his site, geeky-gadgets.com, for more pics and instructions.
Anyone going to try Macgyver’ing this one up at home?
With Apple announcing that Macworld 2009 would be its last, rumors began to fly that maybe CES 2010 would get Steve Jobs’ attention instead. TiPb still isn’t buying that — given Apple’s stated reasons, it makes no more sense for them than Macworld.
However, now word comes that iLounge has begun working with the CEA (the organization behind CES) to create an iPhone (and iPod) “iLounge Pavilion” at CES as a rallying and gathering point for exhibitors — perhaps in lieu of Macworld 2010.
iLounge seems to feel this is necessary to help proactively preserve and project forward the iPhone and iPod community given the perhaps uncertain future of Macworld.
Macworld (the magazine, not expo, though they share the same parent company) editor Jason Snell, however, on Twitter expressed concern that iLounge might have crossed a line beyond merely being proactive.
Hearts and souls are likely still hoping for a strong and vibrant Macworld next year, but are pragmatic minds and wallets turning more towards CES? And what lines should — or shouldn’t — be crossed when it comes to media (new or old) covering events, or each other, while having or making alliances with competitive events?
It seems the iPhone, with its OpenGL and CoreGraphics/CoreAnimation is just begging for some body distortion. We’ve seen it before (and seen it get rejected before), and it just keeps getting more fully featured. Says the developer, Smells Like Donkey:
everyone assumes that iJiggles is strictly a boob app. It is of course the first thing everyone does with it and it does it well, but it’s designed so you can have fun with it on any picture.
Indeed, version 1.1 will include: Smoother and Faster Animations, new “Inflate” feature to further enhance parts of your photos, multitouch interactivity, saving and loading.
Gallery after the break.
(And BTW- TiPb is still waiting for the ladies to get a little pay back with these apps. Maybe in our Forums?)
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Following up on Apple Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook’s comments during yesterday’s Q1 conference call, and the supposition that he was hinting that Apple may just take legal action against the Palm Pre for violating Apple’s intellectual property (i.e. patents), PC Mag quotes a reaction from Palm:
A spokeswoman at Palm said Thursday that the company has not been contacted by Apple’s legal team, to her knowledge. “Palm has a long history of innovation, obviously reflected in our own products and our own robust apps portfolio,” she said. “We have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If we’re faced with legal action, we’re confident that we have the tools to defend ourselves.”
When asked whether gestures like “pinching” were universal, or belonged to Apple, the Palm spokeswoman said that “our position is that multitouch has been around a long, long, long time before Apple introduced it.”
We learned that Apple first began patenting multi-touch in 2004 and acquired additional patents when they bought Fingerworks in 2005, but is Palm hinting that — as PreCentral.net pointed out — they may have some patents of their own to fight back with?
Curiouser and curiouser…
While conducting a follow-up interview for the upcoming documentary, Objectified, the film makers were able to catch not only a rare glimpse inside Apple’s design guru Jony Ive’s studio, but managed to snap an almost unheard of picture of the man himself at work. (via Daring Fireball)
This is where the iPhone was designed and prototyped, people. We’re talking unicorns being born or Norse dwarves forging Uru hammers or something…
RepairPal, from the website of the same name, leverages the power and convenience of the iPhone to provide highly targeted — and at times vitally important — information when and where you need it. Say the developers:
We made this application because it addresses the real world disconnect with auto repair. Many times when your car needs repair, you aren’t at the computer. People may end up at an unfamiliar shop in an unfamiliar town so they need something to reassure them that they are not getting ripped off.
We built this for the iPhone because we need to convey a lot of information to the user. Development tools for iPhone allowed us to build an application that is easy to navigate and provide the best user experience. Being able to take advantage of features like GPS makes a lot of sense for our application since people may not always be sure of their location when they are broken down on the side of the highway.
Looking for some repair work? Give this FREE app a try and let us know how it works for you!
More screenshots after the break…
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As it did the year before, the Smartphone Round Robin needed to go into overtime again this time around — but we’re finished now! If you haven’t been following along, here’s what you missed: Each of the editors of our five Smartphone Experts sites swapped phones for a week or so, reviewing and leanring what it’s like to wear another smarphone user’s shoes. The result is the entire series of articles you see linked on this handy page, the Smartphone Round Robin of 2008.
What will you learn there? You’ll learn that there was no single smartphone that ‘won’ the Round Robin — but that’s by design. There’s no perfect smartphone out there, but there just might be the perfect smartphone to fit your needs. If you’re looking to get a new smartphone soon, think about what you need it do to and then hit up these articles — you’ll find that depending on what each of us care about, we’ll give you a useful perspective on whether a given smartphone matches up.
Actually, we explain it all pretty well on this page. Oh, yeah, one more thing, we are giving away fabulous prizes:
- From Android Central, the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors
- From CrackBerry.com, the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin
- From The iPhone Blog, the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset
- From TreoCentral, the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original)
- From WMExperts, the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion
Find out who the winners are, after the break!
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