Articles by Rene Ritchie
When Apple began their recall program for the iPhone 3G AC adapters, some noted that the massive packaging the new adapters were sent in seemed to be running in stark opposition to Apple’s newly stated “greener” goals.
Ginormous would be one word for them. Wasteful, another.
Could things have changed however? While we received three of the huge boxes only a couple of weeks ago, this week we received two much smaller padded envelopes instead. Did Apple and/or their shipping company respond to the concerns, or just realize how insane the previous packaging was?
Anybody else getting the newer, slimmed-down packaging? Anyone still getting the huge boxes?
Saw this online last night, and you have to give Apple’s advertising gurus credit: they know how to show off the App Store. Never once do they get bogged down in the tech-talk quagmire of Social Network or Location Based services, nor do they trade comical barbs like their Mac Switcher ads.
iPhone ads show cool things being done easily. Case in point, the latest spot featuring Loopt.
Stay in touch with your friends. That’s the iPhone. Done.
Maybe that’s why the iPhone ranks #1 in satisfaction?
Check out the add via Apple.com
During Apple’s last conference call, Steve Jobs positively cooed about Apple’s iPhone passing RIM’s Blackberry in sales last month. If anyone had any doubts, Canalys says it’s so (for whatever that bag of analysis is worth). According to Apple Insider, they pegged the market as Nokia 46.6%, Apple 17.3, RIM 15.2, and Windows Mobile 13.6. (Google’s Android, of course, was not yet launched and Palm… er… Palm?)
While some have cited Bold delays, Storm warnings, an iPhone 3G honeymoon, and other reasons to explain Apple’s good fortunes last quarter, JD Powers 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study gives an even more interesting answer: Business users like the iPhone better!
Blackberrys are okay, and Palms are teh sux, by contrast, according to the survey. The iPhone’s edge? ease of use, feature set and design. Engadget points out that the iPhone scored 5/5 on features, in spite of our ongoing complaints about the lack of cut and paste, A2DP, MMS, etc., etc. ad naseum infinitum.
ahem
So maybe, just maybe, users prefer a smaller set of features done delightfully well to a gobsmack of them cobbled together with near impenetrability?
Who’da thunk it?
Gym Technik says they were built for Blackberry, but are now on the iPhone “due to popular demand”:
Gym Technik is an innovative online service that uses the lastest in cutting edge mobile technology to connect your iPhone to your fitness routine. Members of this service can define their entire workout routine on the Gym Technik website, and when at the gym – The iPhone, pointed at the Gym Technik mobile website, allows for tracking of exercise stats in their routine, visual exercise guidance, and references to previous workout stats. All of this information synchs automatically to the members’ web account where they can view their progress on informative charts and graphs and optimize their routine as necessary.
So, if you’re a switcher and want to bring the service with you, or just looking for something to help keep you on track with your workouts, this might be work a look. Let us know!
More pics after the break…
We’ve heard about podcast downloads being added to iPhone OS 2.2 before, but now Macrumors (via Shimanke.com — check out their screenshots) has more details how the process will work. In response to Chad’s fears of overwhelming AT&T’s fragile 3G network (aka “rabbit ears”), it looks like cell downloads will be limited to podcasts under 10MB, the same limitation currently imposed on App Store purchases over 3G. Both audio and video podcasts will be available for download, however, and on WiFi there’s no limitation.
Could TV Shows and even Movies be next? And with Exchange, MobileMe, and other sync services storming the “clouds”, what does this mean for the days of USB tethering to your Mac or PC?
Meanwhile, the App Store looks to have a cosmetic makeover, with categories now sporting the icons of some of their most popular Apps (i.e., Social Networking shows the Facebook icon).
Lastly, still no sign of Push Notification, which Macrumors hears via the whisper-net is still having “major issues”. After the disastrous MobileMe rollout, could Apple be waiting to get it right the first time?
But hey, at least we’re still getting all those Google Maps improvements!
The realtechVR team has released their first iPhone game, Laserlink:
Become the Master of the lasers with LaserLink, and recover every diamonds in each level. Create junctions to allow generating a laser between two points of connection of color in order to recover the diamonds ones.
If you’re interested in puzzlers, let us know what you think!
(Thanks to genevois for the tip!)
I must once again confess that I’m a total ringtone Luddite. Yup, I’m still rocking Marimba! But for those of you with a Mac who want to kick it old school or drop the latest hawtness straight onto your iPhone, PocketMac brings you RingtoneStudio:
…easily create ringtones from practically any multimedia file — from QuickTime movies to unprotected music files of all types. What’s even better, there’s no crazy iPhone hacking required. Your iPhone doesn’t even have to be connected when you’re creating your ringtones.
If any of you iPhone ringtone DJs decide to give it a whirl, let us know how it works for you!
(Thanks Tim for sending this in!)
Apple has announced that Tony Fadell, senior VP of the iPod Division, and wife Danielle Lambert, VP of Human Resources, are “reducing their roles within the company as they devote more time to their young family.”
Who will succeed Fadell, who is sometimes referred to as the “father of the iPod”?
Mark Papermaster, who readers may remember Apple is accused of stealing away from IBM. Says Steve Jobs:
“Mark is a seasoned leader and is going to be an excellent addition to our senior management team. Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years. We’re sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity.”
So with Papermaster working on the hardware, Scott Forstall on the software, and Eddy Cue running Internet Services (iTunes, App Store, MobileMe), it looks like Apple has completely overhauled its iPhone leadership in the last 6 months.
What does that mean moving forward? And will TiPb get our iPhone HD in 2009?!
Apple is still heavily promoting the App Store in their latest iPhone ad — and given the staggering number of Apps and even more staggering number of downloads, with good reason.
The latest focuses on restaurant random-finder Urban Spoon, and perhaps to appease the UK overseers, the ad now cops to having the “sequence shortened”. Dieter finds this “disappointingly normal”:
…what was so awesome about the initial commercials is they showed some speed, instruction, and fun just by showing you the interface.
So scratch the speed, but you can still shake some fun.
UPDATE:
The New York Times gets clarification from Opera (via Daring Fireball):
“We stopped the work because of the prohibitive license,” to Mr. von Tetzchner wrote in an e-mail.
Turns out it was an internal project.
ORIGINAL POST:
So we, along with half the interwebs, picked up a paraphrased comment by Opera’s president that pretty much indicated Apple had rejected popular mobile browser Opera Mini from the App Store.
Well, John Gruber over at Daring Fireball did some digging and found out that it just ain’t so:
My understanding, based on information from informed sources who do not wish to be identified because they were not authorized by their employers is that Opera has developed an iPhone version of Opera Mini, they haven’t even submitted it to Apple, let alone had it be rejected.
